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THE  BOOK  OF  TEA 


THE  BOOK  OF  TEA 


BY 
OKAKURA-KAKUZO 


NEW  YORK 

DUFFIELD  &  COMPANY 

1P19 


COPTRIGHT  1906,  BY 

POX,  DUFFIELD  &  COMPANY 


To 
JOHN  LAFARGE 

Sensei 


2216930 


CONTENTS 


Chapter  I.  The  Cup  of  Humanity 

Tea  ennobled  into  Teaism.  a  religion  of  aestheti- 
cism,  the  adoration  of  the  beautiful  among 
ever5'day  facts — Teaism  developed  among  both 
nobles  and  peasants — The  mutual  misunder- 
standing of  the  New  World  and  the  Old — The 
Worship  of  Tea  in  the  West — Early  records  of 
Tea  in  European  writing — The  Taoists'  version 
of  the  combat  between  Spirit  and  Matter — The 
modern  struggle  for  wealth  and  power    ...       3 

Chapter  II.  The  Schools  of  Tea 

The  three  stages  of  the  evolution  of  Tea — The 
Boiled  Tea,  the  Whipped  Tea,  and  the  Steeped 
Tea,  representative  of  the  Tang,  the  Sung,  and 
the  Ming  dynasties  of  China — Luwuh,  the  first 
apostle  of  Tea — The  Tea-ideals  of  the  three 
dyuasties — To  the  latter-day  Chinese  Tea  is  a 
delicious  beveragCf  but  not  an  ideal — In  Japan 
Tea  is  a  religion  of  the  art  of  life 25 


Chapter  III.  Taoism  and  Zennism 

The  connection  of  Zennism  with  Tea — Taoism, 
and  its  successor  Zennism,  represent  the  indi- 
vidualistic trend  of  the  Southern  Chinese  mind 
— Taoism  accepts  the  mundane  and  tries  to  find 
beauty  in  our  world  of  woe  and  worry— Zennism 


CONTENTS 


PACK 

emphasizes  the  teachings  of  Taoism — Through 
consecrated  meditation  may  beattained supreme 
self-realisation — Zennism,  like  Taoism,  is  the 
worship  of  Relativity — Ideal  of  Teaism  a  result 
of  the  Zen  conception  of  greatness  in  the  small- 
est incidents  of  life — Taoism  furnished  the  basis 
for  aesthetic  ideals,  Zennism  made  them  prac- 
tical   47 


Chapter  IV.  The  Tea-Room 

The  tea-room  does  not  pretend  to  be  other  than 
a  mere  cottage — The  simplicity  and  purism  of 
the  tea-room — Symbolism  in  the  construction  of 
the  tea-room — The  system  of  its  decoration — A 
sanctuary  from  the  vexations  of  the  outer  world     73 

Chapter  V.  Art  Appreciation 

Sympathetic  communion  of  minds  necessary  for 
art  appreciation — The  secret  understanding  be- 
tween the  master  and  ourselves — The  value  of 
suggestion — Art  is  of  value  only  to  the  extent 
that  it  speaks  to  us — No  real  feeling  in  much  of 
the  apparent  enthusiasm  to-day — Confusion  of 
art  with  archaeology — We  are  destroying  art  in 
destroying  the  beautiful  in  life 103 

Chapter  VI.  Flowers 

Flowers  our  constant  friends — The  Master  of 
Flowers — The  waste  of  Flowers  among  Western 
communities — The  art  of  floriculture  in  the  East 
— The  Tea-Masters  and  the  Cult  of  Flowers — 
The  Art  of  Flower  Arrangement — The  adoration 
of  the  Flower  for  its  own  sake — The  Flower- 
Masters — Two  main  branches  of  the  schools  of 
Flower  Arrangement,  the  Formalistic  and  the 

Naturalesque 123 

yiii 


CONTENTS 


Chapter  VII.  Tea-Masters 

Rea  appreciation  of  art  only  possible  to  those 
who  1  lake  of  it  a  living  influence — Contribu- 
tions of  the  Tea-Masters  to  art — Their  influence 
on  the  conduct  of  life — The  Last  Tea  of  Rikiu  151 


1 

THE  CUP  OF  HUMANITY 


THE  BOOK  OF  TEA 
I 

THE    CUP   OF   HUMANITY 

TEA  began  as  a  medicine  and  grew 
into  a  beverage.  In  China,  in  the 
eighth  century,  it  entered  the  reahn  of 
poetry  as  one  of  the  polite  amusements. 
The  fifteenth  centmy  saw  Japan  enno- 
ble it  into  a  religion  of  aestheticism — • 
Teaism.  Teaism  is  a  cult  founded  on 
the  adoration  of  the  beautiful  among 
the  sordid  facts  of  everyday  existence. 
It  inculcates  purity  and  harmony,  the 
mysterj^  of  mutual  charit}^,  the  roman- 
ticism of  the  social  order.  It  is  essen- 
tially a  worship  of  the  Imperfect,  as  it 
is  a  tender  attempt  to  accomplish  some- 


THE   BOOK   OF  TE.V 


thing  possible  in  this  impossible  thing 
we  know  as  life. 

The  Philosophy  of  Tea  is  not  mere 
aestheticism  in  the  ordinary  acceptance 
o^  the  term,  for  it  expresses  conjointly 
with  ethics  and  religion  our  whole  point 
of  view  about  man  and  nature.  It  is 
hygiene,  for  it  enforces  cleanliness;  it 
is  economics,  for  it  shows  comfort  in 
simplicity  rather  than  in  the  complex 
and  costly;  it  is  moral  geometry,  inas- 
much as  it  defines  our  sense  of  propor- 
tion to  the  universe.  It  represents  the 
true  spirit  of  Eastern  democracy  by 
making  all  its  votaries  aristocrats  in 
taste. 

The  long  isolation  of  Japan  from  the 
rest  of  the  world,  so  conducive  to  in- 
trospection, has  been  highly  favourable 
to  the  development  of  Teaism.  Our 
home  and  habits,  costume  and  cuisine, 

4 


THE    CUP    OF    HUMANITY 

porcelain,  lacquer,  painting — our  very 
literature — all  have  been  subject  to  its 
influence.  No  student  of  Japanese  cul- 
ture could  ever  ignore  its  presence.  It 
has  permeated  the  elegance  of  noble 
boudoirs,  and  entered  the  abode  of  the 
humble.  Our  peasants  have  learned  to 
arrange  flowers,  our  meanest  labourer 
to  offer  his  salutation  to  the  rocks  and 
waters.  In  our  common  parlance  we 
speak  of  the  man  "  with  no  tea  "  in  him, 
when  he  is  insusceptible  to  the  serio- 
comic interests  of  the  personal  drama. 
Again  we  stigmatise  the  untamed  aes- 
thete who,  regardless  of  the  mundane 
tragedy,  runs  riot  in  the  springtide  of 
emancipated  emotions,  as  one  "  with  too 
much  tea  "  in  him. 

The  outsider  may  indeed  wonder  at 
this  seeming  much  ado  about  nothing. 
What  a  tempest  in  a  tea-cup  1  he  will 
5 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


say.  But  when  we  consider  how  small 
after  all  the  cup  of  human  enjoyment 
is,  how  soon  ovei'flowed  with  tears,  how 
easily  drained  to  the  dregs  in  our 
quenchless  thirst  for  infinity,  we  shall 
not  blame  ourselves  for  making  so 
much  of  the  tea-cup.  Mankind  has 
done  worse.  In  the  worship  of  Bac- 
chus, we  have  sacrificed  too  freely;  and 
we  have  even  transfigured  the  gory 
image  of  Mars.  Why  not  consecrate 
ourselves  to  the  queen  of  the  Camelias, 
and  revel  in  the  warm  stream  of  sym- 
pathy that  flows  from  her  altar?  In 
the  liquid  amber  within  the  ivory-porce- 
lain, the  initiated  may  touch  the  sweet 
reticence  of  Confucius,  the  piquancy  of 
Laotse,  and  the  ethereal  aroma  of  Saky- 
amuni  himself. 

Those  who  cannot  feel  the  littleness 
of  great  things  in  themselves  are  apt  to 
6 


THE    CUP    OF   HUMANITY 

overlook  the  greatness  of  little  things  in 
others.  The  average  Westerner,  in  his 
sleek  complacency,  will  see  in  the  tea 
ceremony  but  another  instance  of  the 
thousand  and  one  oddities  which  con- 
stitute the  quaintness  and  childishness 
of  the  East  to  him.  He  was  wont  to 
regard  Japan  as  barbarous  while  she 
indulged  in  the  gentle  arts  of  peace :  he 
calls  her  civilised  since  she  began  to 
commit  wholesale  slaughter  on  Manchu- 
rian  battlefields.  Much  comment  has 
been  given  lately  to  the  Code  of  the 
Samurai, — the  Art  of  Death  which 
makes  our  soldiers  exult  in  self-sacri- 
fice ;  but  scarcely  any  attention  has  been 
drawn  to  Teaism,  which  represents  so 
much  of  our  Art  of  Life.  Fain  would 
we  remain  barbarians,  if  our  claim  to 
civilisation  were  to  be  based  on  the  grue- 
some glory  of  war.  Fain  would  we 
.7 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 

await  the  time  when  due  respect  shall 
be  paid  to  our  art  and  ideals. 

When  will  the  West  understand,  or 
try  to  understand,  the  East?  We 
Asiatics  are  often  appalled  by  the  curi- 
ous web  of  facts  and  fancies  which  has 
been  woven  concerning  us.  We  are  pic- 
tured as  living  on  the  perfume  of  the 
lotus,  if  not  on  mice  and  cockroaches. 
It  is  either  impotent  fanaticism  or  else 
abject  voluptuousness.  Indian  spiritu- 
ality has  been  derided  as  ignorance, 
Chinese  sobriety  as  stupidity,  Japanese 
patriotism  as  the  result  of  fatalism.  It 
has  been  said  that  we  are  less  sensible 
to  pain  and  wounds  on  account  of  the 
callousness  of  our  nervous  organisation! 

Why  not  amuse  yourselves  at  our  ex- 
pensed Asia  returns  the  compliment. 
There  would  be  further  food  for  merri- 
ment if  you  were  to  know  all  that  we 
8 


THE    CUP    OF   HUMANITY 

have  imagined  and  written  about  you. 
All  the  glamour  of  the  perspective  is 
there,  all  the  unconscious  homage  of 
wonder,  all  the  silent  resentment  of  the 
new  and  undefined.  You  have  been 
loaded  with  virtues  too  refined  to  be 
envied,  and  accused  of  crimes  too  pic- 
turesque to  be  condemned.  Our  writers 
in  the  past — the  wise  men  who  knew — 
informed  us  that  you  had  bushy  tails 
somewhere  hidden  in  your  garments, 
and  often  dined  off  a  fricassee  of  new- 
born babes!  Nay,  we  had  something 
worse  against  you :  we  used  to  think  you 
the  most  impracticable  people  on  the 
earth,  for  you  were  said  to  preach  what 
you  never  practised. 

Such  misconceptions  are  fast  vanish- 
ing amongst  us.    Commerce  has  forced 
the   European  tongues   on  many   an 
Eastern  port.    Asiatic  youths  are  flock- 
9 


THE    BOOK   OF    TEA 


ing  to  Western  colleges  for  the  equip- 
ment of  modern  education.  Our  in- 
sight does  not  penetrate  your  culture 
deeply,  hut  at  least  we  are  willing  to 
learn.  Some  of  my  compatriots  have 
adopted  too  much  of  your  customs  and 
too  much  of  your  etiquette,  in  the  delu- 
sion that  the  acquisition  of  stiif  collars 
and  tall  silk  hats  comprised  the  attain- 
ment of  your  civilisation.  Pathetic 
and  deplorable  as  such  affectations  are, 
they  evince  our  willingness  to  approach 
the  West  on  our  knees.  Unfortunately 
the  Western  attitude  is  unfavourable 
to  the  understanding  of  the  East.  The 
Christian  missionary  goes  to  impart, 
but  not  to  receive.  Your  information 
is  based  on  the  meagre  translations  of 
our  inmiense  literature,  if  not  on  the 
unreliable  anecdotes  of  passing  trav- 
ellers. It  is  rarely  that  the  chivalrous 
10 


THE    CUP    OF    HUMANITY 

pen  of  a  Lafcadio  Hearn  or  that  of  the 
author  of  "  The  Web  of  Indian  Life  " 
enlivens  the  Oriental  darkness  with  the 
torch  of  our  own  sentiments. 

Perhaps  I  betray  my  own  ignorance 
of  the  Tea  Cult  by  being  so  outspoken. 
Its  very  spirit  of  politeness  exacts  that 
you  say  what  you  are  expected  to  say, 
and  no  more.  But  I  am  not  to  be  a 
polite  Teaist.  So  much  harm  has  been 
done  already  by  the  mutual  misunder- 
standing of  the  Xew  World  and  the 
Old,  that  one  need  not  apologise  for 
contributing  his  tithe  to  the  furtherance 
of  a  better  understanding.  The  begin- 
ning of  the  twentieth  century  would 
have  been  spared  the  spectacle  of  san- 
guinary warfare  if  Russia  had  conde- 
scended to  know  Japan  better.  What 
dire  consequences  to  humanity  lie  in 
the  contemptuous  ignoring  of  Eastern 
11 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


problems !  European  imperialism,  which 
does  not  disdain  to  raise  the  absurd  cry 
of  the  Yellow  Peril,  fails  to  realise  that 
Asia  may  also  awaken  to  the  cruel 
sense  of  the  White  Disaster.  You  may 
laugh  at  us  for  having  "  too  much  tea," 
but  may  we  not  suspect  that  you  of  the 
West  have  "  no  tea  "  in  your  consti- 
tution? 

Let  us  stop  the  continents  from 
hurling  epigrams  at  each  other,  and  be 
sadder  if  not  wiser  by  the  mutual  gain 
of  half  a  hemisphere.  We  have  devel- 
oped along  different  lines,  but  there  is 
no  reason  why  one  should  not  supple- 
ment the  other.  You  have  gained  ex- 
pansion at  the  cost  of  restlessness;  we 
have  created  a  harmony  which  is  weak 
against  aggression.  Will  you  beheve 
it? — the  East  is  better  off  in  some  re- 
spects than  the  West  1 
12 


THE    CUP    OF    HUMANITY 

Strangely  enough  humanity  has  so 
far  met  in  the  tea-cup.  It  is  the  only 
Asiatic  ceremonial  which  commands 
universal  esteem.  The  white  man  has 
scoffed  at  our  religion  and  our  morals, 
but  has  accepted  the  brown  beverage 
without  hesitation.  The  afternoon  tea 
is  now  an  important  function  in  West- 
ern society.  In  the  delicate  clatter  of 
trays  and  saucers,  in  the  soft  rustle  of 
feminine  hospitality,  in  the  common 
catechism  about  cream  and  sugar,  we 
know  that  the  Worship  of  Tea  is  estab- 
lished beyond  question.  The  philo- 
sophic resignation  of  the  guest  to  the 
fate  awaiting  him  in  the  dubious  de- 
coction proclaims  that  in  this  single 
instance  the  Oriental  spirit  reigns 
supreme. 

The  earliest  record  of  tea  in  Euro- 
Id 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


pean  writing  is  said  to  be  found  in  the 
statement  of  an  Arabian  traveller,  that 
after  the  year  879  the  main  sources  of 
revenue  in  Canton  were  the  duties  on 
salt  and  tea.  Marco  Polo  records  the 
deposition  of  a  Chinese  minister  of 
finance  in  1285  for  his  arbitrary  aug- 
mentation of  the  tea-taxes.  It  was  at 
the  period  of  the  great  discoveries  that 
the  European  people  began  to  know 
more  about  the  extreme  Orient.  At  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Hol- 
landers brought  the  news  that  a  pleas- 
ant drink  was  made  in  the  East  from 
the  leaves  of  a  bush.  The  travellers 
Giovanni  Batista  Ramusio  (1559),  L. 
Ahneida  (1576),  Maffeno  (1588), 
Tareira  (1610),  also  mentioned  tea.* 
In  the  last-named  year  ships  of  the 
Dutch  East  India  Company  brought 

1  Paid  Kransel,  Dissertations,  Berlin,  1902. 
14 


THE    CUP    OF    HUMANITY 

the  first  tea  into  Europe.  It  was  known 
in  France  in  1636,  and  reached  Russia 
in  1638.=^  England  welcomed  it  in  1650 
and  spoke  of  it  as  "  That  excellent  and 
by  all  physicians  approved  China  drink, 
called  by  the  Chineans  Tcha,  and  by 
other  nations  Tay,  alias  Tee." 

Like  all  the  good  things  of  the  world, 
the  propaganda  of  Tea  met  with  oppo- 
sition. Heretics  like  Henry  Saville 
(1678)  denounced  drinking  it  as  a  filthy 
custom.  Jonas  Hanway  (Essay  on 
Tea,  1756)  said  that  men  seemed  to 
lose  their  stature  and  comeliness,  wo- 
men their  beauty  through  the  use  of  tea. 
Its  cost  at  the  start  (about  fifteen  or 
sixteen  shillings  a  pound)  forbade  pop- 
ular consumption,  and  made  it  "  regalia 
for  high  treatments  and  entertainments, 
presents  being  made  thereof  to  princes 

2Mercurius  Politicus,  1656. 
15 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


and  grandees."  Yet  in  spite  of  such 
drawbacks  tea-drinking  spread  with 
marvellous  rapidity.  The  coffee-houses 
of  London  in  the  early  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  became,  in  fact,  tea- 
houses, the  resort  of  wits  like  Addison 
and  Steele,  who  beguiled  themselves 
over  their  "  dish  of  tea."  The  beverage 
soon  became  a  necessary  of  life — a  tax- 
able matter.  We  are  reminded  in  this 
connection  what  an  important  part  it 
plays  in  modern  history.  Colonial 
America  resigned  herself  to  oppression 
until  human  endurance  gave  way  before 
the  heavy  duties  laid  on  Tea.  Ameri- 
can independence  dates  from  the  throw- 
ing of  tea-chests  into  Boston  harbour. 
There  is  a  subtle  charm  in  the  taste 
of  tea  which  makes  it  irresistible  and 
capable  of  idealisation.  Western  hu- 
mourists were  not  slow  to  mingle  the 
16 


THE    CUP    OE    HUMANITY 

fragrance  of  their  thought  with  its 
aroma.  It  has  not  the  arrogance  of 
wine,  the  self -consciousness  of  coiFee, 
nor  the  simpering  innocence  of  cocoa. 
Already  in  1711,  says  the  Spectator: 
"  I  would  therefore  in  a  particular 
manner  recommend  these  my  specula- 
tions to  all  well-regulated  families  that 
set  apart  an  hour  every  morning  for 
tea,  bread  and  butter;  and  would  ear- 
nestly advise  them  for  their  good  to 
order  this  paper  to  be  punctually  served 
up  and  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  part 
of  the  tea-equipage."  Samuel  Johnson 
draws  his  own  portrait  as  "  a  hardened 
and  shameless  tea-drinker,  who  for 
twenty  years  diluted  his  meals  with  only 
the  infusion  of  the  fascinating  plant; 
who  with  tea  amused  the  evening,  with 
tea  solaced  the  midnight,  and  with  tea 
Bvelcomed  the  morning." 
17 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


Charles  Lamb,  a  professed  devotee, 
sounded  the  true  note  of  Teaism  when 
he  wrote  that  the  greatest  pleasure  he 
knew  was  to  do  a  good  action  by 
stealth,  and  to  have  found  it  out  by  ac- 
cident. For  Teaism  is  the  art  of  con- 
cealing beauty  that  you  may  discover  it, 
of  suggesting  what  you  dare  not  reveal. 
It  is  the  noble  secret  of  laughing  at 
yourself,  calmly  yet  thoroughly,  and 
is  thus  humour  itself, — the  smile  of 
philosophy.  All  genuine  humourists 
may  in  this  sense  be  called  tea-philoso- 
phers,— Thackeray,  for  instance,  and, 
of  course,  Shakespeare.  The  poets  of 
the  Decadence  (when  was  not  the  world 
in  decadence?) ,  in  their  protests  against 
materialism,  have,  to  a  certain  extent, 
also  opened  the  way  to  Teaism.  Per- 
haps nowadays  it  is  our  demure  con- 
templation of  the  Imperfect  that  the 
18 


THE    CUP    OF    HUMANITY 

West  and  the  East  can  meet  in  mutual 
consolation. 

The  Taoists  relate  that  at  the  great 
beginning  of  the  No-Beginning,  Spirit 
and  Matter  met  in  mortal  combat.  At 
last  the  Yellow  Emperor,  the  Sun  of 
Heaven,  triumphed  over  Shuhyung, 
the  demon  of  darkness  and  earth.  The 
Titan,  in  his  death  agony,  struck  his 
head  against  the  solar  vault  and  shiv- 
ered the  blue  dome  of  jade  into  frag- 
ments. The  stars  lost  their  nests,  the 
moon  wandered  aimlessly  among  the 
wild  chasms  of  the  night.  In  despair 
the  Yellow  Emperor  sought  far  and 
wide  for  the  repairer  of  the  Heavens. 
He  had  not  to  search  in  vain.  Out  of 
the  Eastern  sea  rose  a  queen,  the  divine 
Niuka,  horn-crowTied  and  dragon- 
tailed,  resplendent  in  her  armour  of 
fire.  She  welded  the  five-coloured  rain- 
19 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 

bow  in  her  magic  cauldron  and  rebuilt 
the  Chinese  sky.  But  it  is  also  told  that 
Niuka  forgot  to  fill  two  tiny  crevices 
in  the  blue  firmament.  Thus  began  the 
dualism  of  love — two  souls  rolling 
through  space  and  never  at  rest  until 
they  join  together  to  complete  the  uni- 
verse. Everyone  has  to  build  anew  his 
sky  of  hope  and  peace. 

The  heaven  of  modern  humanity 
is  indeed  shattered  in  the  Cyclopean 
struggle  for  wealth  and  power.  The 
world  is  groping  in  the  shadow  of  ego- 
tism and  vulgarity.  Knowledge  is 
bought  through  a  bad  conscience,  be- 
nevolence practised  for  the  sake  of 
utility.  The  East  and  West,  like  two 
dragons  tossed  in  a  sea  of  ferment,  in 
vain  strive  to  regain  the  jewel  of  life. 
We  need  a  Niuka  again  to  repair  the 
grand  devastation;  we  await  the  great 
20 


THE    CUP    OF    HUMANITY 

Avatar.  IMeanwhile,  let  us  have  a  sip 
of  tea.  The  afternoon  glow  is  bright- 
ening the  bamboos,  the  fountains  are 
bubbling  with  delight,  the  soughing 
of  the  pines  is  heard  in  our  kettle.  Let 
us  dream  of  evanescence,  and  linger  in 
the  beautiful  foolislmess  of  things. 


«1 


II 

THE    SCHOOLS   OF   TEA 


»  » 


II 

THE   SCHOOLS   OF   TEA 

TEA  is  a  work  of  art  and  needs  a 
master  hand  to  bring  out  its  no- 
blest qualities.  We  have  good  and  bad 
tea,  as  we  have  good  and  bad  paintings 
— generallj'^  the  latter.  There  is  no  sin- 
gle recipe  for  making  the  perfect  tea, 
as  there  are  no  rules  for  producing  a 
Titian  or  a  Sesson.  Each  preparation 
of  the  leaves  has  its  individuality,  its 
special  affinity  with  water  and  heat,  its 
hereditary  memories  to  recall,  its  own 
method  of  telling  a  story.  The  truly 
beautiful  must  be  always  in  it.  How 
much  do  we  not  suffer  through  the  con- 
stant failure  of  society  to  recognise  this 
simple  and  fundamental  law  of  art  and 
g5 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


life;  Lichihlai,  a  Sung  poet,  has  sadly; 
remarked  that  there  were  three  most  de- 
plorable things  in  the  world:  the  spoil- 
ing of  fine  youths  through  false  educa- 
tion, the  degradation  of  fine  paintings 
through  vulgar  admiration,  and  the 
utter  waste  of  fine  tea  through  incompe- 
tent manipulation. 

Like  Art,  Tea  has  its  periods  and  its 
schools.  Its  evolution  may  be  roughly 
divided  into  three  main  stages:  the 
Boiled  Tea,  the  Whipped  Tea,  and  the 
Steeped  Tea.  We  moderns  belong  to 
the  last  school.  These  several  methods 
of  appreciating  the  beverage  are  indi- 
cative of  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  which 
they  prevailed.  For  life  is  an  expres- 
sion, our  unconscious  actions  the  con- 
stant betrayal  of  our  innermost  thought. 
Confucius  said  that  "  man  hideth  not.'* 
Perhaps  we  reveal  ourselves  too  much 
26 


THE    SCHOOLS    OF    TEA 

—  ' 

in  small  things  because  we  have  so  little 
of  the  great  to  conceal.  The  tiny  inci- 
dents of  daily  routine  are  as  much  a 
commentary  of  racial  ideals  as  the  high- 
est flight  of  philosophy  or  poetry. 
Even  as  the  difl'erence  in  favourite 
vintage  marks  the  separate  idiosyn- 
crasies of  different  periods  and  nation- 
alities of  Europe,  so  the  Tea-ideals 
characterise  the  various  moods  of  Ori- 
ental culture.  The  Cake-tea  which  was 
boiled,  the  Powdered-tea  which  was 
whipped,  the  Leaf-tea  which  was 
steeped,  mark  the  distinct  emotional  im- 
pulses of  the  Tang,  the  Sung,  and  the 
Ming  dynasties  of  China.  If  we  were 
inclined  to  borrow  the  much-abused  ter- 
minology of  art-classification,  we  might 
designate  them  respectively,  the  Classic, 
the  Romantic,  and  the  Naturalistic 
schools  of  Tea. 

87 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


The  tea-plant,  a  native  of  southern 
China,  was  known  from  very  early 
times  to  Chinese  botany  and  medicine. 
It  is  alluded  to  in  the  classics  under  the 
various  names  of  Tou,  Tseh,  Chung, 
Kha,  and  ^ling,  and  was  highly  prized 
for  possessing  the  virtues  of  relieving 
fatigue,  delighting  the  soul,  strength- 
ening the  will,  and  repairing  the  eye- 
sight. It  was  not  only  administered 
as  an  internal  dose,  but  often  applied 
externally  in  form  of  paste  to  alleviate 
rheumatic  pains.  The  Taoists  claimed 
it  as  an  important  ingredient  of  the 
elixir  of  immortality.  The  Buddhists 
used  it  extensively  to  prevent  drowsi- 
ness during  their  long  hours  of  medi- 
tation. 

By  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  Tea 
became  a  favourite  beverage  among  the 
inliabitants  of  the  Yangtse-Kiang  val- 
28 


THE    SCHOOLS    OF    TEA 

ley.  It  was  about  this  time  that  the 
modern  ideograph  Cha  was  coined,  evi- 
dently a  corruption  of  the  classic  Tou. 
The  poets  of  the  southern  djniasties 
have  left  some  fragments  of  their  ferv- 
ent adoration  of  the  "froth  of  the  liquid 
jade."  Then  emperors  used  to  bestow 
some  rare  preparation  of  the  leaves  on 
their  high  ministers  as  a  reward  for 
eminent  services.  Yet  the  method  of 
drinking  tea  at  this  stage  was  primi- 
tive in  the  extreme.  The  leaves  were 
steamed,  crushed  in  a  mortar,  made  into 
a  cake,  and  boiled  together  with  rice, 
ginger,  salt,  orange  peel,  spices,  milk, 
and  sometimes  with  onions!  The  cus- 
tom obtains  at  the  present  day  among 
the  Thibetans  and  various  Mongolian 
tribes,  who  make  a  curious  syrup  of 
these  ingredients.  The  use  of  lemon 
slices  by  the  Russians,  who  learned  to 
^9 


THE  book:  of  tea 


take  tea  from  the  Chinese  caravansaries, 
points  to  the  survival  of  the  ancient 
method. 

It  needed  the  genius  of  the  Tang  dy- 
nasty to  emancipate  Tea  from  its  crude 
state  and  lead  to  its  final  idealisation. 
With  Luwuh  in  the  middle  of  the  eighth 
century  we  have  our  first  apostle  of  tea. 
He  was  born  in  an  age  when  Bud- 
dhism, Taoism,  and  Confucianism  were 
seeking  mutual  synthesis.  The  pan- 
theistic symbolism  of  the  time  was  urg- 
ing one  to  mirror  the  Universal  in  the 
Particular.  Luwuh,  a  poet,  saw  in  the 
Tea-service  the  same  harmony  and  order 
which  reigned  through  all  things.  In 
his  celebrated  work,  the  "  Chaking " 
(The  Holy  Scripture  of  Tea)  he  form- 
ulated the  Code  of  Tea.  He  has  since 
been  worshipped  as  the  tutelary  god  of 
the  Chinese  tea  merchants, 
30 


THE    SCHOOLS    OF   TEA 

The  *'  Chaking  "  consists  of  three  vol- 
umes and  ten  chapters.  In  the  first 
chapter  Luw^h  treats  of  the  nature  of 
the  tea-plant,  in  the  second  of  the  im- 
plements for  gathering  the  leaves,  in 
the  third  of  the  selection  of  the  leaves. 
According  to  him  the  best  quality  of 
the  leaves  must  have  "  creases  like  the 
leathern  boot  of  Tartar  horsemen,  curl 
like  the  dewlap  of  a  mighty  bullock, 
unfold  like  a  mist  rising  out  of  a  ravine, 
gleam  like  a  lake  touched  by  a  zephyr, 
and  be  wet  and  soft  like  fine  earth  newly 
swept  by  rain." 

The  fourth  chapter  is  devoted  to 
the  enumeration  and  description  of  the 
twenty-four  members  of  the  tea-equip- 
age, beginning  with  the  tripod  brazier 
and  ending  with  the  bamboo  cabinet  for 
containing  all  these  utensils.  Here  we 
notice  Luwuli's  predilection  for  Taoist 
31 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


symbolism.  Also  it  is  interesting  to  ob- 
serve in  this  connection  the  influence  of 
tea  on  Chinese  ceramics.  The  Celestial 
porcelain,  as  is  well  known,  had  its 
origin  in  an  attempt  to  reproduce  the 
exquisite  shade  of  jade,  resulting,  in  the 
Tang  dynasty,  in  the  blue  glaze  of  the 
south,  and  the  white  glaze  of  the  north. 
Luwuh  considered  the  blue  as  the  ideal 
colour  for  the  tea-cup,  as  it  lent  addi- 
tional greenness  to  the  beverage,  where- 
as the  white  made  it  look  pinkish  and 
distasteful.  It  was  because  he  used 
cake-tea.  Later  on,  when  the  tea  mas- 
ters of  Sung  took  to  the  powdered  tea^ 
they  preferred  heavy  bowls  of  blue- 
black  and  dark  bro^vn.  The  Mings, 
with  their  steeped  tea,  rejoiced  in  light 
ware  of  white  porcelain. 

In  the  fifth  chapter  Luwuh  describes 
the  method  of  making  tea.    He  elimi- 
32 


THE    SCHOOLS    OF    TEA 

nates  all  ingredients  except  salt.  He 
dwells  also  on  the  much-discussed  ques- 
tion of  the  choice  of  water  and  the  de- 
gree of  boiling  it.  According  to  him, 
the  mountain  spring  is  the  best,  the  river 
water  and  the  spring  water  come  next 
in  the  order  of  excellence.  There  are 
three  stages  of  boiling:  the  first  boil  is 
when  the  little  bubbles  like  the  eye  of 
fishes  swim  on  the  surface;  the  second 
boil  is  when  the  bubbles  are  like  crystal 
beads  rolling  in  a  foimtain;  the  third 
boil  is  when  the  billows  surge  wildly  in 
the  kettle.  The  Cake-tea  is  roasted  be- 
fore the  fire  until  it  becomes  soft  like 
a  baby's  arm  and  is  shredded  into  pow- 
der between  pieces  of  fine  paper.  Salt 
is  put  in  the  first  boil,  the  tea  in  the  sec- 
ond. At  the  third  boil,  a  dipperful  of 
cold  water  is  poured  into  the  kettle  to 
settle  the  tea  and  revive  the  "  youth  of 
33 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


the  water."  Then  the  beverage  was 
poured  into  cups  and  drunk.  O  nectar! 
The  fihny  leaflet  hung  hke  scaly  clouds 
in  a  serene  sky  or  floated  like  water- 
lilies  on  emerald  streams.  It  was  of 
such  a  beverage  that  Lotung,  a  Tang 
poet,  wrote :  "  The  first  cup  moistens 
my  lips  and  throat,  the  second  cup 
breaks  my  loneliness,  the  third  cup 
searches  my  barren  entrail  but  to  find 
therein  some  five  thousand  volumes  of 
odd  ideographs.  ^  The  fourth  cup  raises 
a  slight  perspiration, — all  the  wrong  of 
life  passes  away  through  my  pores.  At 
the  fifth  cup  I  am  purified;  the  sixth 
cup  calls  me  to  the  realms  of  immortals. 
The  seventh  cup — ah,  but  I  could 
take  no  more!  I  only  feel  the  breath 
of  cool  wind  that  rises  in  my  sleeves. 
Where   is   Horaisan?^     Let   me   ride 

iThe  Chinese  Elysium. 

34 


THE    SCHOOLS    OF   TEA 

on  this  sweet  breeze  and  waft  away 
thither." 

The  remaining  chapters  of  the  **  Cha- 
king "  treat  of  the  vulgarity  of  the 
ordinary  methods  of  tea-drinking,  a 
historical  summary  of  illustrious  tea- 
drinkers,  the  famous  tea  plantations  of 
China,  the  possible  variations  of  the  tea- 
service  and  illustrations  of  the  tea- 
utensils.    The  last  is  unfortunately  lost. 

The  appearance  of  the  "  Chaking  " 
must  have  created  considerable  sensa- 
tion at  the  time.  Luwuh  was  be- 
friended by  the  Emperor  Taisung 
(763-779),  and  his  fame  attracted 
many  followers.  Some  exquisites  were 
said  to  have  been  able  to  detect  the  tea 
made  by  Luwuh  from  that  of  his  dis- 
ciples. One  mandarin  has  his  name  im- 
mortalised by  his  failure  to  appreciate 
the  tea  of  this  great  master. 


THE    BOOK   OF    TEA 


In  the  Sung  dynasty  the  whipped  tea 
came  into  fashion  and  created  the  sec- 
ond school  of  Tea.  The  leaves  were 
ground  to  fine  powder  in  a  small  stone 
mill,  and  the  preparation  was  whipped 
in  hot  water  by  a  delicate  whisk  made 
of  split  bamboo.  The  new  process  led 
to  some  change  in  the  tea-equipage  of 
Luwuh,  as  well  as  the  choice  of  leaves. 
Salt  was  discarded  forever.  The  enthu- 
siasm of  the  Sung  people  for  tea  knew 
no  bounds.  Epicures  vied  with  each 
other  in  discovering  new  varieties,  and 
regular  tournaments  were  held  to  decide 
their  superiority.  The  Emperor  Kia- 
sung  (1101-1124),  who  was  too  great 
an  artist  to  be  a  well-behaved  monarch, 
lavished  his  treasures  on  the  attainment 
of  rare  species.  He  himself  wrote  a 
dissertation  on  the  twenty  kinds  of 
tea,  among  which  he  prizes  the 
S6 


THE    SCHOOLS    OF    TEA 

"  white  tea  "  as  of  the  rarest  and  finest 
quality. 

The  tea-ideal  of  the  Sungs  differed 
from  the  Tangs  even  as  their  notion  of 
life  differed.  They  sought  to  actual- 
ise  what  their  predecessors  tried  to  sym- 
bolise. To  the  Neo-Confucian  mind  the 
cosmic  law  was  not  reflected  in  the  phe- 
nomenal world,  but  the  phenomenal 
world  was  the  cosmic  law  itself.  JEons 
were  but  moments — Nirvana  always 
within  grasp.  The  Taoist  conception 
that  immortality  lay  in  the  eternal 
change  permeated  all  their  modes  of 
thought.  It  was  the  process,  not  the 
deed,  which  was  interesting.  It  was 
the  completing,  not  the  completion, 
which  was  really  vital.  INIan  came  thus 
at  once  face  to  face  with  nature.  A 
new  meaning  grew  into  the  art  of  life. 
,The  tea  began  to  be  not  a  poetical  pas- 
37 


THE    BOOK   OF    TEA 


time,  but  one  of  the  methods  of  self- 
realisation.  Wangyucheng  eulogised 
tea  as  "  flooding  his  soul  like  a  direct 
appeal,  that  its  delicate  bitterness  re- 
minded him  of  the  after-taste  of  a 
good  counsel."  Sotumpa  wrote  of  the 
strength  of  the  immaculate  purity  in 
tea  which  defied  corruption  as  a  truly; 
virtuous  man.  Among  the  Buddhists, 
the  southern  Zen  sect,  which  incorpo- 
rated so  much  of  Taoist  doctrines, 
formulated  an  elaborate  ritual  of  tea. 
The  monks  gathered  before  the  image 
of  Bodhi  Dharma  and  drank  tea  out  of 
a  single  bowl  with  the  profound  formal- 
ity of  a  holy  sacrament.  It  was  this 
Zen  ritual  which  finally  developed  into 
the  Tea-ceremony  of  Japan  in  the  fif- 
teenth century. 

Unfortunately  the  sudden  outburst 
of  the  Mongol  tribes  in  the  thirteenth 
38 


THE    SCHOOLS    OF   TEA 

century  which  resulted  in  the  devasta- 
tion and  conquest  of  China  under  the 
barbaric  rule  of  the  Yuen  Emperors, 
destroyed  all  the  fruits  of  Sung  culture. 
The  native  dynasty  of  the  Mings  which 
attempted  re-nationalisation  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  fifteenth  century  was  harassed 
by  internal  troubles,  and  China  again 
fell  under  the  alien  rule  of  the  Manchus 
in  the  seventeenth  century.  Manners 
and  customs  changed  to  leave  no  vestige 
of  the  former  times.  The  powdered  tea 
is  entirely  forgotten.  We  find  a  Ming 
commentator  at  loss  to  recall  the  shape 
of  the  tea  whisk  mentioned  in  one  of 
the  Sung  classics.  Tea  is  now  taken 
by  steeping  the  leaves  in  hot  water 
in  a  bowl  or  cup.  The  reason  why 
the  Western  world  is  innocent  of  the 
older  method  of  drinking  tea  is  ex- 
plained by  the  fact  that  Europe  knew 
39 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


it  only  at  the  close  of  the  ^ling 
dynasty. 

To  the  latter-day  Chinese  tea  is  a  de- 
licious beverage,  but  not  an  ideal.  The 
long  woes  of  his  country  have  robbed 
him  of  the  zest  for  the  meaning  of 
life.  He  has  become  modern,  that  is  to 
say,  old  and  disenchanted.  He  has  lost 
that  sublime  faith  in  illusions  which  con- 
stitutes the  eternal  youth  and  vigour 
of  the  poets  and  ancients.  He  is  an 
eclectic  and  politely  accepts  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  universe.  He  toys  with 
Nature,  but  does  not  condescend  to 
conquer  or  worship  her.  His  Leaf -tea 
is  often  wonderful  with  its  flower-like 
aroma,  but  the  romance  of  the  Tang 
and  Sung  ceremonials  are  not  to  be 
found  in  his  cup. 

Japan,  which  followed  closely  on  the 
footsteps  of  Chinese  civilisation,  has 
40 


THE    SCHOOLS    OF    TEA 

knoAvn  the  tea  in  all  its  tliree  stages. 
As  early  as  the  year  729  we  read  of 
the  Emperor  Shomu  giving  tea  to  one 
hundred  monks  at  his  palace  in  Nara. 
The  leaves  were  probably  imported  by 
our  ambassadors  to  the  Tang  Court  and 
prepared  in  the  way  then  in  fashion. 
In  801  the  monk  Saicho  brought  back 
some  seeds  and  planted  them  in  Yeisan. 
INIany  tea-gardens  are  heard  of  in  the 
succeeding  centuries,  as  well  as  the  de- 
light of  the  aristocracy  and  priesthood 
in  the  beverage.  The  Sung  tea  reached 
us  in  1191  with  the  return  of  Yeisai- 
zenji,  who  went  there  to  study  the  south- 
ern Zen  school.  The  new  seeds  which 
he  carried  home  were  successfully 
planted  in  three  places,  one  of  which, 
the  Uji  district  near  Kioto,  bears  still 
the  name  of  producing  the  best  tea  in 
the  world.  The  southern  Zen  spread 
41 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


with  marvellous  rapidity,  and  with  it 
the  tea-ritual  and  the  tea-ideal  of  the 
Sung.  By  the  fifteenth  century,  under 
the  patronage  of  the  Shogun,  Ashik- 
aga-Voshinasa,  the  tea  ceremony  is  fully 
constituted  and  made  into  an  independ- 
ent and  secular  performance.  Since 
then  Teaism  is  fully  established  in 
Japan.  The  use  of  the  steeped  tea  of 
the  later  China  is  comparatively  recent 
among  us,  being  only  known  since  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It 
has  replaced  the  powdered  tea  in  ordi- 
nary consumption,  though  the  latter 
still  continues  to  hold  its  place  as  the  tea 
of  teas. 

It  is  in  the  Japanese  tea  ceremony 
that  we  see  the  culmination  of  tea-ideals. 
Our  successful  resistance  of  the  Mongol 
invasion  in  1281  had  enabled  us  to  carry 
on  the  Sung  movement  so  disastrously 
43 


THE    SCHOOLS    OF    TEA 

cut  off  in  China  itself  through  the  no- 
madic inroad.  Tea  with  us  became 
more  than  an  idealisation  of  the  form 
of  drinking;  it  is  a  religion  of  the  art 
of  life.  The  beverage  grew  to  be  an 
excuse  for  the  worship  of  purity  and 
refinement,  a  sacred  function  at  which 
the  host  and  guest  joined  to  produce 
for  that  occasion  the  utmost  beatitude 
of  the  mundane.  The  tea-room  was  an 
oasis  in  the  dreary  waste  of  existence 
where  weary  travellers  could  meet  to 
drink  from  the  common  spring  of  art- 
appreciation.  The  ceremony  was  an 
improvised  drama  whose  plot  was  woven 
about  the  tea,  the  flowers,  and  the  paint- 
ings. Not  a  colour  to  disturb  the  tone 
of  the  room,  not  a  sound  to  mar  the 
rhythm  of  things,  not  a  gesture  to  ob- 
trude on  the  harmony,  not  a  word  to 
break  the  unity  of  the  surroundings,  all 
43 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


movements  to  be  performed  simply 
and  naturally — such  were  the  aims 
of  the  tea-ceremony.  And  strangely 
enough  it  was  often  successful.  A  sub- 
tle philosophy  lay  behind  it  all.  Teaism 
was  Taoism  in  disguise. 


i% 


Ill 

TAOISM   AND   ZENNISM 


Ill 

TAOISM   AND   ZENNISM 

THE  connection  of  Zennism  with 
tea  is  proverbial.  We  have  al- 
ready remarked  that  the  tea-ceremony 
was  a  development  of  the  Zen  ritual. 
The  name  of  Laotse,  the  founder  of 
Taoism,  is  also  intimately  associated 
with  the  history  of  tea.  It  is  written  in 
the  Chinese  school  manual  concerning 
the  origin  of  habits  and  customs  that 
the  ceremony  of  offering  tea  to  a  guest 
began  with  Kwanyin,  a  well-known  dis- 
ciple of  Laotse,  who  first  at  the  gate  of 
the  Han  Pass  presented  to  the  "  Old 
Philosopher"  a  cup  of  the  golden  elixir. 
We  shall  not  stop  to  discuss  the  authen- 
ticity of  such  tales,  which  are  valuable, 
47 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


however,  as  confirming  the  early  use  of 
the  beverage  by  the  Taoists.  Our  in- 
terest in  Taoism  and  Zennism  here  lies 
mainly  in  those  ideas  regarding  life  and 
art  which  are  so  embodied  in  what  we 
call  Teaism. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  as  yet  there 
appears  to  be  no  adequate  presentation 
of  the  Taoists  and  Zen  doctrines  in  any 
foreign  language,  though  we  have  had 
several  laudable  attempts/ 

Translation  is  always  a  treason,  and 
as  a  Ming  author  observ^es,  can  at  its 
best  be  only  the  reverse  side  of  a  bro- 
cade,— all  the  threads  are  there,  but  not 
the  subtlety  of  colour  or  design.  But, 
after  all,  what  great  doctrine  is  there 
which  is  easy  to  expound?    The  ancient 

iWe  should  like  to  call  attention  to  Dr.  Paul 
Carus's  admirable  translation  of  the  'Taotei  King/ 
The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company,  Chicago,  1898. 


TAOISM    AND    ZENNISM 

sages  never  put  their  teachings  in  sys- 
tematic form.  They  spoke  in  para- 
doxes, for  they  were  afraid  of  uttering 
half -truths.  They  began  by  talking 
like  fools  and  ended  by  making  their 
hearers  wise.  Laotse  himself,  with  his 
quaint  humour,  says,  "  If  people  of  in- 
ferior intelligence  hear  of  the  Tao,  they 
laugh  immensely.  It  would  not  be  the 
Tao  unless  they  laughed  at  it." 

The  Tao  literally  means  a  Path.  It 
has  been  severally  translated  as  the 
Way,  the  Absolute,  the  Law,  Nature, 
Supreme  Reason,  the  Mode.  These 
renderings  are  not  incorrect,  for  the  use 
of  the  term  by  the  Taoists  differs  ac- 
cording to  the  subject-matter  of  the  in- 
quiry. Laotse  himself  spoke  of  it  thus: 
*'  There  is  a  thing  which  is  all-contain- 
ing, which  was  born  before  the  exist- 
ence of  Heaven  and  Earth.  How  si- 
49 


THE    BOOK   OF    TEA 

-i 

lent!  How  solitary  I  It  stands  alone 
and  changes  not.  It  revolves  without 
danger  to  itself  and  is  the  mother  of 
the  universe.  I  do  not  know  its  name 
and  so  call  it  the  Path.  With  reluct- 
ance I  call  it  the  Infinite.  Infinity  is 
the  Fleeting,  the  Fleeting  is  the  Vanish- 
ing, the  Vanishing  is  the  Reverting." 
The  Tao  is  in  the  Passage  rather  than 
the  Path.  It  is  the  spirit  of  Cosmic 
Change, — the  eternal  growth  which  re- 
turns upon  itself  to  produce  new  forms. 
It  recoils  upon  itself  like  the  dragon, 
the  beloved  symbol  of  the  Taoists.  It 
folds  and  unfolds  as  do  the  clouds.  The 
Tao  might  be  spoken  of  as  the  Great 
Transition.  Subjectively  it  is  the  Mood 
of  the  Universe.  Its  Absolute  is  the 
Relative. 

It  should  be  remembered  in  the  first 
place  that  Taoism,  like  its  legitimate 
50 


TAOISM    AND    ZENNISM 

successor  Zennism,  represents  the  indi- 
vidualistic trend  of  the  Southern  Chi- 
nese mind  in  contra-distinction  to  the 
communism  of  Northern  China  which 
expressed  itself  in  Confucianism.  The 
Middle  Kingdom  is  as  vast  as  Europe 
and  has  a  differentiation  of  idiosyncra- 
sies marked  by  the  two  great  river  sys- 
tems which  traverse  it.  The  Yangste- 
Kiang  and  Hoang-Ho  are  respectively 
the  Mediterranean  and  the  Baltic. 
Even  to-day,  in  spite  of  centuries  of 
unification,  the  Southern  Celestial  dif- 
fers in  his  thoughts  and  beliefs  from 
his  Northern  brother  as  a  member  of  the 
Latin  race  differs  from  the  Teuton.  In 
ancient  days,  when  communication  was 
even  more  difficult  than  at  present,  and 
especially  during  the  feudal  period, 
this  difference  in  thought  was  most  pro- 
nounced. The  art  and  poetry^  of  the 
51 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


one  breathes  an  atmosphere  entirely 
distinct  from  that  of  the  other.  In 
Laotse  and  his  followers  and  in  Kutsu- 
gen,  the  forerunner  of  the  Yangtse- 
Kiang  nature-poets,  we  find  an  ideal- 
ism quite  inconsistent  with  the  prosaic 
ethical  notions  of  their  contemporary 
northern  writers.  Laotse  lived  five 
centuries  before  the  Christian  Era. 

The  germ  of  Taoist  speculation  may 
be  found  long  before  the  advent  of  La- 
otse, surnamed  the  Long-Eared.  The 
archaic  records  of  China,  especially  the 
Book  of  Changes,  foreshadow  his 
thought.  But  the  great  respect  paid 
to  the  laws  and  customs  of  that  classic 
period  of  Chinese  civilisation  which  cul- 
niinated  with  the  establishment  of  the 
Chow  dynasty  in  the  sixteenth  century 
B.  c,  kept  the  development  of  individ- 
ualism in  check  for  a  long  while,  so  that 
62 


TAOISM   AND   ZENNI5M 

it  was  not  until  after  the  disintegration 
of  the  Chow  dynasty  and  the  establish- 
ment of  innumerable  independent  king- 
doms that  it  was  able  to  blossom  forth 
in  the  luxuriance  of  free-thought.  La- 
otse  and  Soshi  (Chuangtse)  were  both 
Southerners  and  the  greatest  exponents 
of  the  New  School.  On  the  other  hand 
Confucius  with  his  numerous  disciples 
aimed  at  retaining  ancestral  conven- 
tions. Taoism  cannot  be  understood 
without  some  knowledge  of  Confucian- 
ism and  vice  versa. 

We  have  said  that  the  Taoist  Abso- 
lute was  the  Relative.  In  ethics  the 
Taoist  railed  at  the  laws  and  the  moral 
codes  of  society,  for  to  them  right  and 
wrong  were  but  relative  terms.  Defi- 
nition is  always  limitation — ^the  "  fixed  " 
and  "  unchangeless  "  are  but  terms  ex- 
pressive of  a  stoppage  of  growth.  Said 
53 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA! 


Kuzugen, — *'  The  Sages  move  the 
world."  Our  standards  of  morality  are 
begotten  of  the  past  needs  of  society, 
but  is  society  to  remain  always  the  same? 
The  observance  of  communal  traditions 
involves  a  constant  sacrifice  of  the  in- 
dividual to  the  state.  Education,  in 
order  to  keep  up  the  mighty  delusion, 
encourages  a  species  of  ignorance.  Peo- 
ple are  not  taught  to  be  really  virtuous, 
but  to  behave  properly.  We  are  wicked 
because  we  are  frightfully  self-con- 
scious. We  never  forgive  others  be- 
cause we  know  that  we  ourselves  are  in 
the  wrong.  We  nurse  a  conscience  be- 
cause we  are  afraid  to  tell  the  truth  to 
others;  we  take  refuge  in  pride  because 
we  are  afraid  to  tell  the  truth  to  our- 
selves. How  can  one  be  serious  with 
the  world  when  the  world  itself  is 
so  ridiculous!  The  spirit  of  barter 
54 


TAOISM    AND    ZENNISM 

is  everywhere.  Honour  and  Chastity  I 
Behold  the  complacent  salesman  retail- 
ing the  Good  and  True.  One  can  even 
buy  a  so-called  Religion,  which  is  really 
but  common  morality  sanctified  with 
flowers  and  music.  Rob  the  Church  of 
her  accessories  and  what  remains  be- 
hind? Yet  the  trusts  tlirive  marvel- 
lously, for  the  prices  are  absurdly  cheap, 
— a  prayer  for  a  ticket  to  heaven,  a 
diploma  for  an  honourable  citizenship. 
Hide  yourself  under  a  bushel  quickly, 
for  if  your  real  usefulness  were  known 
to  the  world  you  would  soon  be  knocked 
down  to  the  highest  bidder  by  the  public 
auctioneer.  Why  do  men  and  women 
like  to  advertise  themselves  so  much? 
Is  it  not  but  an  instinct  derived  from 
the  days  of  slavery? 

The  virility  of  the  idea  lies  not  less  in 
its  power   of  breaking  through  con- 
65 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


temporary  thought  than  in  its  capacity; 
for  dominating  subsequent  movements. 
Taoism  was  an  active  power  during  the 
Shin  djTiasty,  that  epoch  of  Chinese 
unification  from  which  we  derive  the 
name  China.  It  would  be  interesting 
had  we  time  to  note  its  influence  on  con- 
temporary thinkers,  the  mathematicians, 
writers  on  law  and  war,  the  mystics 
and  alchemists  and  the  later  nature- 
poets  of  the  Yangste-Kiang.  We 
should  not  even  ignore  those  specu- 
lators on  Reality  who  doubted  whether 
a  white  horse  was  real  because  he  was 
white,  or  because  he  was  solid,  nor  the 
Conversationalists  of  the  Six  dynasties 
who,  like  the  Zen  philosophers,  revelled 
in  discussions  concerning  the  Pure  and 
the  Abstract.  Above  all  we  should  pay 
homage  to  Taoism  for  what  it  has  done 
toward  the  formation  of  the  Celestial 
56 


TAOISM   AND   ZENNISM 

character,  giving  to  it  a  certain  capacity 
for  reserve  and  refinement  as  "  warm  as 
jade."  Chinese  history  is  full  of  in- 
stances in  which  the  votaries  of  Taoism, 
princes  and  hermits  alike,  followed 
with  varied  and  interesting  results  the 
teachings  of  their  creed.  The  tale  will 
not  be  without  its  quota  of  instruction 
and  amusement.  It  will  be  rich  in 
anecdotes,  allegories,  and  aphorisms. 
We  would  fain  be  on  speaking  terms 
with  the  delightful  emperor  who  never 
died  because  he  never  lived.  We  may 
ride  the  wind  with  Liehtse  and  find  it 
absolutely  quiet  because  we  ourselves 
are  the  wind,  or  dwell  in  mid-air  with 
the  Aged  One  of  the  Hoang-Ho,  who 
lived  betwixt  Heaven  and  Earth  be- 
cause he  was  subject  to  neither  the  one 
nor  the  other.  Even  in  that  grotesque 
apology  for  Taoism  which  we  find  in 
07 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


China  at  the  present  day,  we  can  revel 
in  a  wealth  of  imagery  impossible  to 
find  in  any  other  cult. 

But  the  chief  contribution  of  Taoism 
to  Asiatic  life  has  been  in  the  realm  of 
aesthetics.  Chinese  historians  have  al- 
ways spoken  of  Taoism  as  the  *'  art  of 
being  in  the  world,"  for  it  deals  with 
the  present — ourselves.  It  is  in  us  that 
God  meets  with  Nature,  and  yesterday 
parts  from  to-morrow.  The  Present  is 
the  moving  Infinity,  the  legitimate 
sphere  of  the  Relative.  Relativity  seeks 
Adjustment;  Adjustment  is  Art.  The 
art  of  life  lies  in  a  constant  readjust- 
ment to  our  surroundings.  Taoism  ac- 
cepts the  mundane  as  it  is  and,  unlike 
the  Confucians  and  the  Buddhists, 
tries  to  find  beauty  in  our  world  of  woe 
and  worry.  The  Sung  allegory  of  the 
Three  Vinegar  Tasters  explains  ad- 
58 


TAOISM    AND    ZENNISM 

mirably  the  trend  of  the  three  doctrines. 
Sakyamuni,  Confucius,  and  Laotse 
once  stood  before  a  jar  of  vinegar — the 
emblem  of  life — and  each  dipped  in  his 
finger  to  taste  the  brew.  The  matter- 
of-fact  Confucius  found  it  sour,  the 
Buddha  called  it  bitter,  and  Laotse  pro- 
nounced it  sweet. 

The  Taoists  claimed  that  the  comedy 
of  life  could  be  made  more  interesting 
if  everyone  would  preserve  the  unities. 
To  keep  the  proportion  of  things  and 
give  place  to  others  without  losing  one's 
own  position  was  the  secret  of  success 
in  the  mundane  drama.  We  must  know 
the  whole  play  in  order  to  properly  act 
our  parts;  the  conception  of  totality 
must  never  be  lost  in  that  of  the  individ- 
ual. This  Laotse  illustrates  by  his 
favourite  metaphor  of  the  Vacuum. 
He  claimed  that  only  in  vacuum  lay 
59 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


the  truly  essential.  The  reality  of  a 
room,  for  instance,  was  to  be  found  in 
the  vacant  space  enclosed  by  the  roof 
and  walls,  not  in  the  roof  and  walls 
themselves.  The  usefulness  of  a  water 
pitcher  dwelt  in  the  emptiness  where 
water  might  be  put,  not  in  the  form  of 
the  pitcher  or  the  material  of  which  it 
was  made.  Vacuum  is  all  potent  be- 
cause all  containing.  In  vacuum  alone 
motion  becomes  possible.  One  who 
could  make  of  himself  a  vacuum  into 
which  others  might  freely  enter  would 
become  master  of  all  situations.  The 
whole  can  always  dominate  the  part. 

These  Taoists'  ideas  have  greatly  in- 
fluenced all  our  theories  of  action,  even 
to  those  of  fencing  and  wrestling.  Jiu- 
jitsu,  the  Japanese  art  of  self-defence, 
owes  its  name  to  a  passage  in  the  Tao- 
teiking.  In  jiu-jitsu  one  seeks  to  draw 
60 


TAOISM    AND    ZENNISM 

out  and  exhaust  the  enemy's  strength 
by  non-resistance,  vacuum,  while  con- 
senting one*s  own  strength  for  victory 
in  the  final  struggle.  In  art  the  im- 
portance of  the  same  principle  is  illus- 
trated by  the  value  of  suggestion.  In 
leaving  something  unsaid  the  beholder 
is  given  a  chance  to  complete  the  idea 
and  thus  a  great  masterpiece  irresisti- 
bly rivets  your  attention  until  you  seem 
to  become  actually  a  part  of  it.  A  vac- 
uum is  there  for  you  to  enter  and  fill 
up  to  the  full  measui'e  of  your  aesthetic 
emotion. 

He  who  had  made  himself  master  of 
the  art  of  hving  was  the  Real  ^lan  of 
the  Taoist.  At  birth  he  enters  the  realm 
of  dreams  only  to  awaken  to  reality  at 
death.  He  tempers  his  o^^^l  brightness 
in  order  to  merge  himself  into  the  ob- 
scurity of  others.  He  is  "reluctant, 
61 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


as  one  who  crosses  a  stream  in  winter; 
hesitating  as  one  who  fears  the  neigh- 
bourhood; respectful,  like  a  guest  j 
trembling,  like  ice  that  is  about  to  melt ; 
unassuming,  like  a  piece  of  wood  not 
yet  carved;  vacant,  like  a  valley;  form- 
less, like  troubled  waters."  To  him  the 
three  jewels  of  life  were  Pity,  Econ- 
omy, and  Modesty. 

If  now  we  turn  our  attention  to 
Zennism  we  shall  find  that  it  empha- 
sises the  teachings  of  Taoism.  Zen  is 
a  name  derived  from  the  Sanscrit  word 
Dhyana,  which  signifies  meditation.  It 
claims  that  through  consecrated  medi- 
tation may  be  attained  supreme  self- 
realisation.  Meditation  is  one  of  the 
six  ways  through  which  Buddhahood 
may  be  reached,  and  the  Zen  sectarians 
affirm  that  Sakyamuni  laid  special  stress 
on  this  method  in  his  later  teachings, 
62 


TAOISM    AND    ZENNISM 

handing  down  the  rules  to  his  chief  dis- 
ciple Kashiapa.  According  to  their  tra- 
dition Kashiapa,  the  first  Zen  patriarch, 
imparted  the  secret  to  Ananda,  who  in 
turn  passed  it  on  to  successive  patriarchs 
until  it  reached  Bodhi-Dharma,  the 
twenty-eighth.  Bodhi-Dharma  came 
to  Northern  China  in  the  early  half  of 
the  sixth  century  and  was  the  first 
patriarch  of  Chinese  Zen.  There  is 
much  uncertainty  about  the  history  of 
these  patriarchs  and  their  doctrines.  In 
its  philosophical  aspect  early  Zennism 
seems  to  have  affinity  on  one  hand  to 
the  Indian  Negativism  of  Nagarjuna 
and  on  the  other  to  the  Gnan  phil- 
osophy formulated  by  Sancharacharya. 
The  first  teaching  of  Zen  as  we  know  it 
at  the  present  day  must  be  attributed 
to  the  sixth  Chinese  patriarch  Yeno 
(637-713),  founder  of  Southern  Zen, 
63 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


so-called  from  the  fact  of  its  predomi- 
nance in  Southern  China.  He  is  closely 
followed  by  the  great  Baso  (died  788) 
who  made  of  Zen  a  living  influence  in 
Celestial  life.  Hiakujo  (719-814)  the 
pupil  of  Baso,  first  instituted  the  Zen 
monastery  and  established  a  ritual  and 
regulations  for  its  government.  In  the 
discussions  of  the  Zen  school  after  the 
time  of  Baso  we  find  the  play  of  the 
Yangtse-Kiang  mind  causing  an  acces- 
sion of  native  modes  of  thought  in  con- 
trast to  the  former  Indian  idealism. 
Whatever  sectarian  pride  may  assert  to 
the  contrary  one  cannot  help  being  im- 
pressed by  the  similarity  of  Southern 
Zen  to  the  teachings  of  Laotse  and  the 
Taoist  Conversationalists.  In  the  Tao- 
teiking  we  already  find  allusions  to  the 
importance  of  self -concentration  and 
the  need  of  properly  regulating  the 


TAOISM    AND    ZENNISM 

breath — essential  points  in  the  practice 
of  Zen  meditation.  Some  of  the  best 
commentaries  on  the  Book  of  Laotse 
have  been  written  by  Zen  scholars. 

Zennism,  like  Taoism,  is  the  worship 
of  Relativity.  One  master  defines  Zen 
as  the  art  of  feeling  the  polar  star  in 
the  southern  sky.  Truth  can  be  reached 
onty  through  the  comprehension  of  op- 
posites.  Again,  Zennism,  like  Taoism, 
is  a  strong  advocate  of  individualism. 
Nothing  is  real  except  that  which  con- 
cerns the  working  of  our  own  minds. 
Yeno,  the  sixth  patriarch,  once  saw  two 
monks  watching  the  flag  of  a  pagoda 
fluttering  in  the  wind.  One  said  "  It 
is  the  wind  that  moves,"  the  other  said 
"  It  is  the  flag  that  moves  " ;  but  Yeno 
explained  to  them  that  the  real  move- 
ment was  neither  of  the  wind  nor  the 
flag,  but  of  something  within  their  own 
65 


THE    BOOK   OF    TEA 


minds.  Hiakujo  was  walking  in  the 
forest  with  a  disciple  when  a  hare  scur- 
ried off  at  their  approach.  "  Why  does 
the  hare  fly  from  you? "  asked  Hia- 
kujo. "  Because  he  is  afraid  of  me," 
was  the  answer.  "  No,"  said  the  master, 
"  it  is  because  you  have  a  murderous 
instinct."  This  dialogue  recalls  that 
of  Soshi  (Chauntse),  the  Taoist.  One 
day  Soshi  was  walking  on  tlie  bank  of 
a  river  with  a  friend.  "  How  delight- 
fully the  fishes  are  enjoying  themselves 
in  the  water!"  exclaimed  Soshi.  His 
friend  spake  to  him  thus:  "You  are 
not  a  fish;  how  do  you  know  that  the 
fishes  are  enjoying  themselves?  "  "  You 
are  not  myself,"  returned  Soshi;  "  how 
do  you  know  that  I  do  not  know  that 
the  fishes  are  enjoying  themselves?" 

Zen  was  often  opposed  to  the  pre- 
empts of  orthodox  Buddhism  even  as 
66 


TAOISM    AND   ZENNISM 

Taoism  was  opposed  to  Confucianism. 
To  the  transcendental  insight  of  the 
Zen,  words  were  but  an  incumbrance  to 
thought;  the  whole  sway  of  Buddhist 
scriptures  only  commentaries  on  per- 
sonal speculation.  The  followers  of 
Zen  aimed  at  direct  communion  with  the 
inner  nature  of  things,  regarding  their 
outward  accessories  only  as  impedi- 
ments to  a  clear  perception  of  Truth. 
It  was  this  love  of  the  Abstract  that  led 
the  Zen  to  prefer  black  and  white 
sketches  to  the  elaborately  coloured 
paintings  of  the  classic  Buddhist  School. 
Some  of  the  Zen  even  became  icono- 
clastic as  a  result  of  their  endeavour  to 
recognise  the  Buddlia  in  themselves 
rather  than  through  images  and  sym- 
bolism. We  find  Tankawosho  break- 
ing up  a  wooden  statue  of  Buddha 
on  a  wintry  day  to  make  a  fire. 
67 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


"What  sacrilege!"  said  the  horror- 
stricken  bystander.  *'  I  wish  to  get 
the  Shall  ^  out  of  the  ashes,"  calmly 
rejoined  the  Zen.  "  But  you  certainly 
will  not  get  Shall  from  this  image ! " 
was  the  angry  retort,  to  which  Tanka 
replied,  *'  If  I  do  not,  this  is  cer- 
tainly not  a  Buddha  and  I  am  com- 
mitting no  sacrilege."  Then  he  turned 
to  warm  himself  over  the  kindling  fire. 
A  special  contribution  of  Zen  to 
Eastern  thought  was  its  recognition  of 
the  mundane  as  of  equal  importance 
with  the  spiritual.  It  held  that  in  the 
great  relation  of  things  there  was  no 
distinction  of  small  and  great,  an  atom 
possessing  equal  possibilities  Tvith  the 
universe.  The  seeker  for  perfection 
must  discover  in  his  own  life  the  re- 

2  The   precious   jewels    formed   in   the   bodies    of 
Buddhas  after  cremation. 

68 


TAOISM    AND    ZENXISM 

flection  of  the  inner  light.  The  organi- 
sation of  the  Zen  monastery  was  very 
significant  of  this  point  of  view.  To 
every  member,  except  the  abbot,  was 
assigned  some  special  work  in  the  care- 
taking  of  the  monastery,  and  curiously 
enough,  to  the  novices  were  committed 
the  lighter  duties,  while  to  the  most  re- 
spected and  advanced  monks  were  given 
the  more  irksome  and  menial  tasks. 
Such  services  formed  a  part  of  the  Zen 
discipline  and  every  least  action  must 
be  done  absolutely  perfectly.  Thus 
many  a  weighty  discussion  ensued  while 
weeding  the  garden,  paring  a  turnip, 
or  serving  tea.  The  whole  ideal  of  Tea- 
ism  is  a  result  of  this  Zen  conception 
of  greatness  in  the  smallest  incidents  of 
life.  Taoism  furnished  the  basis  for 
aesthetic  ideals,  Zennism  made  them 
practical. 

69 


IV 

THE  tea-room; 


IV 

THE  TEA-ROOM 

TO  European  architects  brought 
up  on  the  traditions  of  stone 
and  brick  construction,  our  Japanese 
method  of  building  v^ith  wood  and  bam- 
boo seems  scarcely  worthy  to  be  ranked 
as  architecture.  It  is  but  quite  recently 
that  a  competent  student  of  Western 
architecture  has  recognised  and  paid 
tribute  to  the  remarkable  perfection  of 
our  great  temples.^  Such  being  the  case 
as  regards  our  classic  architecture,  we 
could  hardly  expect  the  outsider  to  ap- 
preciate the  subtle  beauty  of  the  tea- 
room, its  principles  of  construction  and 

1  We  refer  to  Ralph  N.  Cram's  Impressions  of 
Japanese  Architecture  and  the  Allied  Arts.  The 
Baker  &  Taylor  Co.,  New  York,  1905. 

73 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


decoration  being  entirely  diif erent  from 
those  of  the  West. 

The  tea-room  (the  Sukiya)  does  not 
pretend  to  be  other  than  a  mere  cottage 
— a  straw  hut,  as  we  call  it.  The  orig- 
inal ideographs  for  Sukiya  mean  the 
Abode  of  Fancy.  Latterly  the  various 
tea-masters  substituted  various  Chinese 
characters  according  to  their  conception 
of  the  tea-room,  and  the  term  Sukiya 
may  signify  the  Abode  of  Vacancy  or 
the  Abode  of  the  Unsymmetrical.  It 
is  an  Abode  of  Fancy  inasmuch  as  it 
is  an  ephemeral  structure  built  to  house 
a  poetic  impulse.  It  is  an  Abode  of 
Vacancy  inasmuch  as  it  is  devoid  of 
ornamentation  except  for  what  may  be 
placed  in  it  to  satisfy  some  aesthetic 
need  of  the  moment.  It  is  an  Abode  of 
the  Unsymmetrical  inasmuch  as  it  is 
consecrated  to  the  worship  of  the  Im- 
74. 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


perfect,  purposely  leaving  some  thing 
unfinished  for  the  play  of  the  imagina- 
tion to  complete.  The  ideals  of  Teaism 
have  since  the  sixteenth  century  influ- 
enced our  architecture  to  such  degree 
that  the  ordinary  Japanese  interior  of 
the  present  day,  on  account  of  the  ex- 
treme simplicity  and  chasteness  of  its 
scheme  of  decoration,  appears  to  for- 
eigners almost  barren. 

The  first  independent  tea-room  was 
the  creation  of  Senno-Soyeki,  com- 
monly known  by  his  later  name  of  Ri- 
kiu,  the  greatest  of  all  tea-masters, 
who,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  under 
the  patronage  of  Taiko-Hideyoshi,  in- 
stituted and  brought  to  a  high  state  of 
perfection  the  formalities  of  the  Tea- 
ceremony.  The  proportions  of  the  tea- 
room had  been  previously  determined 
by  Jowo — a  famous  tea-master  of  the 
75 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


fifteenth  century.  The  early  tea-room 
consisted  merely  of  a  portion  of  the 
ordinary  drawing-room  partitioned  off 
by  screens  for  the  purpose  of  the  tea- 
gathering.  The  portion  partitioned 
oif  was  called  the  Kakoi  (enclosure), 
a  name  still  applied  to  those  tea-rooms 
which  are  built  into  a  house  and  are  not 
independent  constructions.  The  Su- 
kiya  consists  of  the  tea-room  proper, 
designed  to  accommodate  not  more  than 
five  persons,  a  number  suggestive  of 
the  saying  "  more  than  the  Graces  and 
less  than  the  Muses,"  an  anteroom 
(midsuya)  where  the  tea  utensils  are 
washed  and  arranged  before  being 
brought  in,  a  portico  (machiai)  in  which 
the  guests  wait  until  they  receive  the 
summons  to  enter  the  tea-room,  and  a 
garden  path  (the  roji)  which  connects 
the  machiai  with  the  tea-room.  The 
76 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


tea-room  is  unimpressive  in  appearance. 
It  is  smaller  than  the  smallest  of  Jap- 
anese houses,  while  the  materials  used 
in  its  construction  are  intended  to  give 
the  suggestion  of  refined  poverty.  Yet 
we  must  remember  that  all  this  is  the 
result  of  profound  artistic  forethought, 
and  that  the  details  have  been  worked 
out  with  care  perhaps  even  greater  than 
that  expended  on  the  building  of  the 
richest  palaces  and  temples.  A  good 
tea-room  is  more  costly  than  an  ordi- 
nary mansion,  for  the  selection  of  its 
materials,  as  well  as  its  workmanship, 
requires  immense  care  and  precision. 
Indeed,  the  carpenters  employed  by  the 
tea-masters  form  a  distinct  and  highly 
honoured  class  among  artisans,  their 
work  being  no  less  delicate  than  that 
of  the  makers  of  lacquer  cabinets. 
The  tea-room  is  not  only  different 
77 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 

^^— ^^^^—  ■  II     .■■■■■     ——.1.  —  ■  I    I  I     ■■  ■  i.^ 

from  any  production  of  Western  archi- 
tecture, but  also  contrasts  strongly  with 
the  classical  architecture  of  Japan  it- 
self. Our  ancient  noble  edifices, 
whether  secular  or  ecclesiastical,  were 
not  to  be  despised  even  as  regards  their 
mere  size.  The  few  that  have  been 
spared  in  the  disastrous  conflagrations 
of  centuries  are  still  capable  of  aweing 
us  by  the  grandeur  and  richness  of  their 
decoration.  Huge  pillars  of  wood  from 
two  to  three  feet  in  diameter  and  from 
thirty  to  forty  feet  high,  supported,  by 
a  complicated  network  of  brackets,  the 
enormous  beams  which  groaned  under 
the  weight  of  the  tile-covered  slanting 
roofs.  The  material  and  mode  of  con- 
struction, though  weak  against  fire, 
proved  itself  strong  against  earth- 
quakes, and  was  well  suited  to  the  cli- 
matic conditions  of  the  country.  In  the 
78 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


Golden  Hall  of  Horiuji  and  the  Pagoda 
of  Yakushiji,  we  have  noteworthy  ex- 
amples of  the  durability  of  our  wooden 
architecture.  These  buildings  have 
practically  stood  intact  for  nearly 
twelve  centuries.  The  interior  of  the 
old  temples  and  palaces  was  profusely 
decorated.  In  the  Hoodo  temple  at 
Uji,  dating  from  the  tenth  century,  we 
can  still  see  the  elaborate  canopy  and 
gilded  baldachinos,  many-coloured  and 
inlaid  with  mirrors  and  mother-of-pearl, 
as  well  as  remains  of  the  paintings  and 
sculpture  which  formerly  covered  the 
walls.  Later,  at  Nikko  and  in  the 
Nijo  castle  in  Kyoto,  we  see  structural 
beauty  sacrificed  to  a  wealth  of  orna- 
mentation which  in  colour  and  exquisite 
detail  equals  the  utmost  gorgeousncss 
of  Arabian  or  Moorish  effort. 

The  simphcity  and  purism  of  the  tea- 
79 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


room  resulted  from  emulation  of  the 
Zen  monastery.  A  Zen  monastery  dif- 
fers from  those  of  other  Buddhist  sects 
inasmuch  as  it  is  meant  only  to  be  a 
dwelling  place  for  the  monks.  Its 
chapel  is  not  a  place  of  worship  or  pil- 
grimage, but  a  college  room  where  the 
students  congregate  for  discussion  and 
the  practice  of  meditation.  The  room 
is  bare  except  for  a  central  alcove  in 
which,  behind  the  altar,  is  a  statue  of 
Bodhi  Dhama,  the  founder  of  the  sect,  or 
of  Sakyamuni  attended  by  Kaphiapa 
and  Ananda,  the  two  earliest  Zen  patri- 
archs. On  the  altar,  flowers  and  incense 
are  offered  up  in  memory  of  the  great 
contributions  which  these  sages  made 
to  Zen.  We  have  already  said  that  it 
was  the  ritual  instituted  by  the  Zen 
monks  of  successively  drinking  tea  out 
of  a  bowl  before  the  image  of  Bodhi 
80 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


Dhama,  which  laid  the  foundations  oi 
the  tea-ceremony.  We  might  add  here 
that  the  altar  of  the  Zen  chapel  was  the 
prototype  of  the  Tokonoma, — the  place 
of  honour  in  a  Japanese  room  where 
paintings  and  flowers  are  placed  for  the 
edification  of  the  guests. 

All  our  great  tea-masters  were  stu- 
dents of  Zen  and  attempted  to  introduce 
the  spirit  of  Zennism  into  the  actual- 
ities of  life.  Thus  the  room,  like  the 
other  equipments  of  the  tea-ceremony, 
reflects  many  of  the  Zen  doctrines.  The 
size  of  the  orthodox  tea-room,  which  is 
four  mats  and  a  half,  or  ten  feet  square, 
is  determined  by  a  passage  in  the  Sutra 
of  Vikramad}i;ia.  In  that  interesting 
work,  Vikramadytia  welcomes  the  Saint 
Manjushiri  and  eighty-four  thousand 
disciples  of  Buddha  in  a  room  of  this 
size, — an  allegory  based  on  the  theory 
81 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


of  the  non-existence  of  space  to  the 
truly  enlightened.  Again  the  roji, 
the  garden  path  which  leads  from  the 
machiai  to  the  tea-room,  signified  the 
first  stage  of  meditation, — the  passage 
into  self-illmnination.  The  roji  was 
intended  to  break  connection  with  the 
outside  world,  and  to  produce  a  fresh 
sensation  conducive  to  the  full  enjoy- 
ment of  aestheticism  in  the  tea-room  it- 
self. One  who  has  trodden  this  garden 
path  cannot  fail  to  remember  how  his 
spirit,  as  he  walked  in  the  twilight  of 
evergreens  over  the  regular  irregulari- 
ties of  the  stepping  stones,  beneath 
which  lay  dried  pine  needles,  and  passed 
beside  the  moss-covered  granite  lan- 
terns, became  uplifted  above  ordinarj^ 
thoughts.  One  may  be  in  the  midst  of 
a  city,  and  yet  feel  as  if  he  were  in  the 
forest  far  away  from  the  dust  and  din 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


of  civilisation.  Great  was  the  ingenuity; 
displayed  by  the  tea-masters  in  produc- 
ing these  effects  of  serenity  and  purity. 
The  nature  of  the  sensations  to  be 
aroused  in  passing  through  the  roji 
differed  vnth  different  tea-masters. 
Some,  like  Rikiu,  aimed  at  utter  loneli- 
ness, and  claimed  the  secret  of  mak- 
ing a  roji  was  contained  in  the  ancient 
ditty: 

"  I  look  beyond; 
Flowers  are  not. 
Nor  tinted  leaves. 
On  the  sea  beach 
A  solitary  cottage  stands 
In  the  waning  light 
Of  an  autumn  eve." 

Others,  like  Kobori-Enshiu,  sought 
for  a  different  effect.    Enshiu  said  the 
idea  of  the  garden  path  was  to  be  found 
in  the  following  verses: 
88 


THE    BOOK    OF    TE^ 


"  A  cluster  of  summer  trees, 

A  bit  of  the  sea^ 

A  pale  evening  moon." 

It  is  not  difficult  to  gather  his  meaning. 
He  wished  to  create  the  attitude  of  a 
newly  awakened  soul  still  lingering 
amid  shado^vy  dreams  of  the  past,  yet 
bathing  in  the  sweet  unconsciousness  of 
a  mellow  spiritual  light,  and  yearning 
for  the  freedom  that  lay  in  the  expanse 
beyond. 

Thus  prepared  the  guest  will  silently 
approach  the  sanctuary,  and,  if  a  sa- 
murai, will  leave  his  sword  on  the  rack 
beneath  the  eaves,  the  tea-room  being 
preeminently  the  house  of  peace.  Then 
he  will  bend  low  and  creep  into  the  room 
through  a  small  door  not  more  than 
three  feet  in  height.  This  proceeding 
was  incumbent  on  all  guests, — ^high  and 
k>w  alike> — and  was  intended  to  incul- 
84* 


THE   TEA-ROOM 


cate  humility.  The  order  of  precedence 
having  been  mutually  agreed  upon 
while  resting  in  the  machiai,  the  guests 
one  by  one  will  enter  noiselessly  and 
take  their  seats,  first  making  obeisance 
to  the  picture  or  flower  arrangement  on 
the  tokonoma.  The  host  will  not  enter 
the  room  until  all  the  guests  have  seated 
themselves  and  quiet  reigns  with  noth- 
ing to  break  the  silence  save  the  note 
of  the  boiling  water  in  the  iron  kettle. 
(The  kettle  sings  well,  for  pieces  of  iron 
are  so  arranged  in  the  bottom  as  to  pro- 
duce a  pecuHar  melody  in  which  one 
may  hear  the  echoes  of  a  cataract  muf- 
fled by  clouds,  of  a  distant  sea  break- 
ing among  the  rocks,  a  rainstorm  sweep- 
ing through  a  bamboo  forest,  or  of  the 
soughing  of  pines  on  some  faraway  hill. 
Even  in  the  daytime  the  light  in  the 
room  is  subdued,  for  the  low  eaves  of 
85 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


the  slanting  roof  admit  but  few  of  the 
sun's  rays.  Everything  is  sober  in  tint 
from  the  ceihng  to  the  floor;  the  guests 
themselves  have  carefully  chosen  gar- 
ments of  unobtrusive  colours.  The 
mellowness  of  age  is  over  all,  every- 
thing suggestive  of  recent  acquirement 
being  tabooed  save  only  the  one  note 
of  contrast  furnished  by  the  bamboo 
dipper  and  the  linen  napkin,  both  im- 
maculately white  and  new.  However 
faded  the  tea-room  and  the  tea-equip- 
age may  seem,  everything  is  absolutely 
clean.  Not  a  particle  of  dust  vnll  be 
found  in  the  darkest  corner,  for  if  any 
exists  the  host  is  not  a  tea-master.  One 
of  the  first  requisites  of  a  tea-master 
is  the  knowledge  of  how  to  sweep, 
clean,  and  wash,  for  there  is  an  art  in 
cleaning  and  dusting.  A  piece  of  an- 
tique metal  work  must  not  be  attacked 
86 


THE   TEA-ROOM 


with  the  unscrupulous  zeal  of  the  DutcR 
house^\^fe.  Dripping  water  from  a 
flower  vase  need  not  be  wiped  away,  for 
it  may  be  suggestive  of  dew  and 
coolness. 

In  this  connection  there  is  a  story  of 
Rikiu  which  well  illustrates  the  ideas  of 
cleanliness  entertained  by  the  tea-mas- 
ters. Rikiu  was  watching  his  son  Shoan 
as  he  swept  and  watered  the  garden 
path.  "  Not  clean  enough,"  said  Rikiu, 
when  Shoan  had  finished  his  task,  and 
bade  him  try  again.  After  a  weary 
hour  the  son  turned  to  Rikiu :  "  Father, 
there  is  nothing  more  to  be  done.  The 
steps  have  been  washed  for  the  third 
time,  the  stone  lanterns  and  the  trees 
are  well  sprinkled  with  water,  moss  and 
lichens  are  shining  ^v^th  a  fresh  verdure ; 
not  a  twig,  not  a  leaf  have  I  left  on  the 
ground.'*  "  Young  fool,"  chided  the 
87 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA^ 


tea-master,  "  that  is  not  the  way  a  gar- 
den path  should  be  swept."  Saying 
this,  Rikiu  stepped  into  the  garden, 
shook  a  tree  and  scattered  over  the  gar- 
den gold  and  crimson  leaves,  scraps  of 
the  brocade  of  autmnn!  What  Rikiu 
demanded  was  not  cleanliness  alone, 
but  the  beautiful  and  the  natural  also. 
The  name,  Abode  of  Fancy,  implies 
a  structure  created  to  meet  some  indi- 
vidual artistic  requirement.  The  tea- 
room is  made  for  the  tea-master,  not 
the  tea-master  for  the  tea-room.  It  is 
not  intended  for  posterity  and  is  there- 
fore ephemeral.  The  idea  that  every- 
one should  have  a  house  of  his  own  is 
based  on  an  ancient  custom  of  the  Jap- 
anese race,  Shinto  superstition  ordain- 
ing that  every  dwelling  should  be  evacu- 
ated on  the  death  of  its  chief  occupant. 
Perhaps  there  may  have  been  some  un- 
88 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


realised  sanitary  reason  for  this  practice. 
Another  early  custom  was  that  a  newly: 
built  house  should  be  provided  for  eacH 
couple  that  married.  It  is  on  account 
of  such  customs  that  we  find  the  Im- 
perial capitals  so  frequently  removed 
from  one  site  to  another  in  ancient  days. 
The  rebuilding,  every  twenty  years,  of 
Ise  Temple,  the  supreme  shrine  of  the 
Sun-Goddess,  is  an  example  of  one  of 
these  ancient  rites  which  still  obtain  at 
the  present  day.  The  observance  of 
these  customs  was  only  possible  with 
some  such  form  of  construction  as  that 
furnished  by  our  system  of  wooden 
architecture,  easily  pulled  down,  easily 
built  up.  A  more  lasting  style,  employ- 
ing brick  and  stone,  would  have  ren- 
dered migrations  impracticable,  as  in- 
deed they  became  when  the  more  stable 
and  massive  wooden  construction  of 
89 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


China  was  adopted  by  us  after  the  Nara 
period. 

With  the  predominance  of  Zen  in- 
dividualism in  the  fifteenth  century, 
however,  the  old  idea  became  imbued 
with  a  deeper  significance  as  conceived 
in  connection  with  the  tea-room.  Zenn- 
ism,  with  the  Buddhist  theory  of  evan- 
escence and  its  demands  for  the  mastery 
of  spirit  over  matter,  recognised  the 
house  only  as  a  temporary  refuge  for 
the  body.  The  body  itself  was  but  as 
a  hut  in  the  wilderness,  a  flimsy  shelter 
made  by  tying  together  the  grasses  that 
grew  around, — when  these  ceased  to  be 
bound  together  they  again  became  re- 
solved into  the  original  waste.  In  the 
tea-room  fugitiveness  is  suggested  in 
the  thatched  roof,  frailty  in  the  slender 
pillars,  lightness  in  the  bamboo  support, 
apparent  carelessness  in  the  use  of  com- 
90 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


monplace  materials.  The  eternal  is  to 
be  found  only  in  the  spirit  which,  em- 
bodied in  these  simple  surroundings, 
beautifies  them  with  the  subtle  Hght  of 
its  refinement. 

That  the  tea-room  should  be  built  to 
suit  some  individual  taste  is  an  enforce- 
ment of  the  principle  of  vitality  in  art. 
Art,  to  be  fully  appreciated,  must  be 
true  to  contemporaneous  life.  It  is  not 
that  we  should  ignore  the  claims  of  pos- 
terity, but  that  we  should  seek  to  enjoy 
the  present  more.  It  is  not  that  we 
should  disregard  the  creations  of  the 
past,  but  that  we  should  try  to  assimi- 
late them  into  our  consciousness.  Sla- 
vish conformity  to  traditions  and 
formulas  fetters  the  expression  of  indi- 
viduality in  architecture.  We  can  but 
weep  over  those  senseless  imitations  of 
European  buildings  which  one  beholds 
91 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


in  modern  Japan.  We  marvel  why, 
among  the  most  progressive  Western 
nations,  architecture  should  be  so  de- 
void of  originality,  so  replete  with  rep- 
etitions of  obsolete  styles.  Perhaps  we 
are  now  passing  through  an  age  of  dem- 
ocratisation  in  art,  while  awaiting  the 
rise  of  some  princely  master  who  shall 
establish  a  new  dynasty.  Would  that 
we  loved  the  ancients  more  and  copied 
them  less  I  It  has  been  said  that  the 
Greeks  were  great  because  they  never 
drew  from  the  antique. 

The  term.  Abode  of  Vacancy,  besides 
conveying  the  Taoist  theory  of  the  all- 
containing,  involves  the  conception  of  a 
continued  need  of  change  in  decorative 
motives.  The  tea-room  is  absolutely 
empty,  except  for  what  may  be  placed 
there  temporarily  to  satisfy  some  aes- 
thetic mood.  Some  special  art  object  is 
92 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


brought  in  for  the  occasion,  and  every- 
thing else  is  selected  and  arranged  to 
enhance  the  beauty  of  the  principal 
theme.  One  cannot  listen  to  different 
pieces  of  music  at  the  same  time,  a  real 
comprehension  of  the  beautiful  being 
possible  only  through  concentration 
upon  some  central  motive.  Thus  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  system  of  decoration 
in  our  tea-rooms  is  opposed  to  that 
which  obtains  in  the  West,  where  the 
interior  of  a  house  is  often  converted 
into  a  museum.  To  a  Japanese,  accus- 
tomed to  simplicity  of  ornamentation 
and  frequent  change  of  decorative 
method,  a  Western  interior  perma- 
nently filled  with  a  vast  array  of  pic- 
tures, statuary,  and  bric-a-brac  gives 
the  impression  of  mere  vulgar  display 
of  riches.  It  calls  for  a  mighty  wealth 
of  appreciation  to  enjoy  the  constant 
93 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


sight  of  even  a  masterpiece,  and  limit- 
less indeed  must  be  the  capacity  for  ar- 
tistic feeling  in  those  who  can  exist 
day  after  day  in  the  midst  of  such  con- 
fusion of  colour  and  form  as  is  to  be 
often  seen  in  the  homes  of  Europe  and 
America. 

The  "Abode  of  the  Unsynmietri- 
cal  "  suggests  another  phase  of  our  dec- 
orative scheme.  The  absence  of  sym- 
metry in  Japanese  art  objects  has  been 
often  commented  on  by  Western  critics. 
iThis,  also,  is  a  result  of  a  working  out 
through  Zennism  of  Taoist  ideals.  Con- 
fucianism, with  its  deep-seated  idea  of 
dualism,  and  Northern  Buddhism  with 
its  worship  of  a  trinity,  were  in  no  way 
opposed  to  the  expression  of  symmetry. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  we  study  the 
ancient  bronzes  of  China  or  the  relig- 
ious arts  of  the  Tang  dynasty  and  the 
94 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


Nara  period,  we  shall  recognise  a  con- 
stant striving  after  symmetry.  The 
decoration  of  our  classical  interiors  was 
decidedly  regular  in  its  arrangement. 
The  Taoist  and  Zen  conception  of  per- 
fection, however,  was  different.  The 
dynamic  nature  of  their  philosophy  laid 
more  stress  upon  the  process  through 
which  perfection  was  sought  than  upon 
perfection  itself.  True  beauty  could 
be  discovered  only  by  one  who  mentally 
completed  the  incomplete.  The  virility 
of  life  and  art  lay  in  its  possibilities  for 
growth.  In  the  tea-room  it  is  left  for 
each  guest  in  imagination  to  complete 
the  total  effect  in  relation  to  himself. 
Since  Zennism  has  become  the  prevail- 
ing mode  of  thought,  the  art  of  the  ex- 
treme Orient  has  purposely  avoided  the 
symmetrical  as  expressing  not  only 
completion,  but  repetition.  Uniformity 
95 


THE    BOOK   OF    TEA 


of  design  was  considered  as  fatal  to  the 
freshness  of  imagination.  Thus,  land- 
scapes, birds,  and  flowers  became  the 
favourite  subjects  for  depiction  rather 
than  the  human  figure,  the  latter  being 
present  in  the  person  of  the  beholder 
himself.  We  are  often  too  much  in 
evidence  as  it  is,  and  in  spite  of  our 
vanity  even  self-regard  is  apt  to  be- 
come monotonous. 

In  the  tea-room  the  fear  of  repetition 
is  a  constant  presence.  The  various  ob- 
jects for  the  decoration  of  a  room 
should  be  so  selected  that  no  colour  or 
design  shall  be  repeated.  If  you  have 
a  living  flower,  a  painting  of  flowers  is 
not  allowable.  If  you  are  using  a  round 
kettle,  the  water  pitcher  should  be 
angular.  lA.  cup  with  a  black  glaze 
should  not  be  associated  with  a  tea- 
caddy  of  black  lacquer.  In  placing  a 
96 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


vase  on  an  incense  burner  on  the  toko- 
noma,  care  should  be  taken  not  to  put 
it  in  the  exact  centre,  lest  it  divide  the 
space  into  equal  halves.  The  pillar  of 
the  tokonoma  should  be  of  a  different 
kind  of  wood  from  the  other  pillars, 
in  order  to  break  any  suggestion  of! 
monotony  in  the  room. 

Here  again  the  Japanese  method  of 
interior  decoration  differs  from  that  of 
the  Occident,  where  we  see  objects  ar- 
rayed symmetrically  on  mantelpieces 
and  elsewhere.  In  Western  houses  we 
are  often  confronted  with  what  appears 
to  us  useless  reiteratfon.  We  find  it 
trying  to  talk  to  a  man  while  his  full- 
length  portrait  stares  at  us  from  behind 
his  back.  We  wonder  which  is  real,  he 
of  the  picture  or  he  who  talks,  and  feel 
a  curious  conviction  that  one  of  them 
must  be  fraud.  ^lany  a  time  have  we 
9T 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA' 


sat  at  a  festive  board  contemplating, 
with  a  secret  shock  to  our  digestion, 
the  representation  of  abundance  on  the 
dining-room  walls.  Why  these  pic- 
tured victims  of  chase  and  sport,  the 
elaborate  carvings  of  fishes  and  fruit? 
Why  the  display  of  family  plates,  re- 
minding us  of  those  who  have  dined  and 
are  dead? 

The  simplicity  of  the  tea-room  and 
its  freedom  from  vulgarity  make  it 
truly  a  sanctuary  from  the  vexations  of 
the  outer  world.  There  and  there  alone 
can  one  consecrate  himself  to  undis- 
turbed adoration  of  the  beautiful.  In 
the  sixteenth  century  the  tea-room  af- 
forded a  welcome  respite  from  labour 
to  the  fierce  warriors  and  statesmen 
engaged  in  the  unification  and  recon- 
struction of  Japan.  In  the  seventeenth 
century,  after  the  strict  formalism  of 
98 


THE    TEA-ROOM 


the  Tokugawa  rule  had  been  developed, 
it  offered  the  only  opportunity  possible 
for  the  free  communion  of  artistic 
spirits.  Before  a  great  work  of  art 
there  was  no  distinction  between  dai- 
myo,  samurai,  and  commoner.  Nowa- 
days industrialism  is  making  true  re- 
finement more  and  more  difficult  all  the 
world  over.  Do  we  not  need  the  tea- 
room  more  than  ever? 


V 

ART   APPRECIATION 


ART  APPRECIATION 

HATE  you  heard  the  Taoist  tale  of 
the  Taming  of  the  Harp? 
Once  in  the  hoary  ages  in  the  Ravine 
of  Lungmen  *  stood  a  Kiri  tree,  a  ver- 
itable king  of  the  forest.  It  reared  its 
head  to  talk  to  the  stars;  its  roots 
struck  deep  into  the  earth,  mingling 
their  bronzed  coils  with  those  of  the  sil- 
ver dragon  that  slept  beneath.  And  it 
came  to  pass  that  a  mighty  wizard  made 
of  this  tree  a  wondrous  harp,  whose 
stubborn  spirit  should  be  tamed  but  by 
the  greatest  of  musicians.  For  long 
the  instrument  was  treasured  by  the 
Emperor  of  China,  but  all  in  vain  were 

1  The  Dragon  Gorge  of  Honan. 
103 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


the  efforts  of  those  who  in  turn  tried  to 
draw  melody  from  its  strings.  In  re- 
sponse to  their  utmost  strivings  there 
came  from  the  harp  but  harsh  notes  of 
disdain,  ill-according  with  the  songs 
they  fain  would  sing.  The  harp  refused 
to  recognise  a  master. 

At  last  came  Peiwoh,  the  prince  of 
harpists.  With  tender  hand  he  caressed 
the  harp  as  one  might  seek  to  soothe  an 
unruly  horse,  and  softly  touched  the 
chords.  He  sang  of  nature  and  the 
seasons,  of  high  mountains  and  flowing 
waters,  and  all  the  memories  of  the  tree 
awoke!  Once  more  the  sweet  breath  of 
spring  played  amidst  its  branches.  The 
young  cataracts,  as  they  danced  down 
the  ravine,  laughed  to  the  budding 
flowers.  Anon  were  heard  the  dreamy; 
voices  of  summer  with  its  myriad  in- 
sects, the  gentle  pattering  of  rain,  the 
104 

i 


ART    APPRECIATION 

\yail  of  the  cuckoo.  Hark  I  a  tiger  roars, 
— the  valley  answers  again.  It  is  au- 
tumn; in  the  desert  night,  sharp  like 
a  sword  gleams  the  moon  upon  the 
frosted  grass.  Now  winter  reigns,  and 
through  the  snow-filled  air  swirl  flocks 
of  swans  and  rattling  hailstones  beat 
upon  the  boughs  with  fierce  delight. 

Then  Peiwoh  changed  the  key  and 
sang  of  love.  The  forest  swayed  like 
an  ardent  swain  deep  lost  in  thought. 
On  high,  like  a  haughty  maiden,  swept 
a  cloud  bright  and  fair;  but  passing, 
trailed  long  shadows  on  the  ground, 
black  like  despair.  Again  the  mode  was 
changed;  Peiwoh  sang  of  war,  of  clash- 
ing steel  and  trampling  steeds.  And 
in  the  harp  arose  the  tempest  of  Lung- 
men,  the  dragon  rode  the  lightning,  the 
thundering  avalanche  crashed  through 
the  hills.  In  ecstasy  the  Celestial  mon- 
105 


THE    BOOK   OF    TEA 


arch  asked  Peiwoh  wherein  lay  the  se- 
cret of  his  victory.  "  Sire,"  he  repHed, 
*'  others  have  failed  because  they  sang 
but  of  themselves.  I  left  the  harp  to 
choose  its  theme,  and  knew  not  truly 
whether  the  harp  had  been  Peiwoh  or 
Peiwoh  were  the  harp." 

This  story  well  illustrates  the  mystery 
of  art  appreciation.  The  masterpiece 
is  a  sjTiiphony  played  upon  our  finest 
feelings.  True  art  is  Peiwoh,  and  we 
the  harp  of  Lungmen.  At  the  magic 
touch  of  the  beautiful  the  secret  chords 
of  our  being  are  awakened,  we  vibrate 
and  thrill  in  response  to  its  call.  Mind 
speaks  to  mind.  We  listen  to  the  un- 
spoken, we  gaze  upon  the  unseen.  The 
master  calls  forth  x^otes  we  know  not  of. 
Memories  long  forgotten  all  come  back 
to  us  with  a  new  significance.  Hopes 
stifled  by  fear,  yearnings  that  we  dare 
106 


ART    APPRECIATION 

not  recognise,  stand  forth  in  new  glory. 
Our  mind  is  the  canvas  on  which  the 
artists  lay  their  colour;  their  pigments 
are  our  emotions;  their  chiaroscuro  the 
light  of  joy,  the  shadow  of  sadness.  The 
masterpiece  is  of  ourselves,  as  we  are  ofi 
the  masterpiece. 

The  sympathetic  communion  of 
minds  necessary  for  art  appreciation 
must  be  based  on  mutual  concession. 
The  spectator  must  cultivate  the  proper 
attitude  for  receiving  the  message,  as 
the  artist  must  know  how  to  impart  it. 
The  tea-master,  Kobori-Enshiu,  him- 
self a  daimyo,  has  left  to  us  these  mem- 
orable words :  "  Approach  a  great  paint- 
ing as  thou  wouldst  approach  a  great 
prince."  In  order  to  understand  a  mas- 
terpiece, you  must  lay  yourself  low  be- 
fore it  and  await  with  bated  breath  its 
least  utterance.  An  eminent  Sung 
107 


THE    BOOK   OF    TEA! 


critic  once  made  a  charming  confession. 
Said  he :  "  In  my  young  days  I  praised 
the  master  whose  pictures  I  liked,  but 
as  my  judgment  matured  I  praised 
myself  for  liking  what  the  masters  had 
chosen  to  have  me  like."  It  is  to  be 
deplored  that  so  few  of  us  really  take 
pains  to  study  the  moods  of  the  mas- 
ters. In  our  stubborn  ignorance  we 
refuse  to  render  them  this  simple  cour- 
tesy, and  thus  often  miss  the  rich  repast 
of  beauty  spread  before  our  very  eyes. 
A  master  hajs  always  something  to 
offer,  while  we  go  hungry  solely  be- 
cause of  our  own  lack  of  appreciation. 
To  the  sympathetic  a  masterpiece 
becomes  a  living  reality  towards  whicli 
we  feel  di'awn  in  bonds  of  comradeship. 
The  masters  are  immortal,  for  their 
loves  and  fears  live  in  us  over  and  over 
again.  It  is  rather  the  soul  than  the 
108 


ART    APPRECIATION 

hand,  the  man  than  the  technique,  which 
appeals  to  us, — the  more  human  the 
call  the  deeper  is  our  response.  It  is 
because  of  this  secret  understanding 
between  the  master  and  ourselves  that 
in  poetry  or  romance  we  suffer  and  re- 
joice with  the  hero  and  heroine.  Chika- 
matsu,  our  Japanese  Shakespeare,  has 
laid  down  as  one  of  the  first  principles 
of  dramatic  composition  the  importance 
of  taking  the  audience  into  the  confi- 
dence of  the  author.  Several  of  his 
pupils  submitted  plays  for  his  approval, 
but  only  one  of  the  pieces  appealed  to 
him.  It  was  a  play  somewhat  resem- 
bling the  Comedy  of  Errors,  in  whicK 
twin  brethren  sufi'er  through  mistaken 
identity.  "  This,"  said  Chikamatsu, 
"  has  the  proper  spirit  of  the  drama, 
for  it  takes  the  audience  into  consider- 
ation. The  pubhc  is  permitted  to  know 
109 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


more  than  the  actors.  It  knows  where 
the  mistake  lies,  and  pities  the  poor  fig- 
ures on  the  board  who  innocently  rush 
to  their  fate." 

The  great  masters  both  of  the  East 
and  the  West  never  forgot  the  value  of 
suggestion  as  a  means  for  taking  the 
spectator  into  their  confidence.  Who 
can  contemplate  a  masterpiece  without 
being  awed  by  the  immense  vista  of 
thought  presented  to  our  consideration? 
How  familiar  and  sympathetic  are 
they  all;  how  cold  in  contrast  the  mod- 
ern commonplaces!  In  the  former  we 
feel  the  warm  outpouring  of  a  man's 
heart;  in  the  latter  only  a  formal  sa- 
lute. Engrossed  in  his  technique,  the 
modern  rarely  rises  above  himself.  Like 
the  musicians  who  vainly  invoked  the 
Lungmen  harp,  he  sings  only  of  him- 
self. His  works  may  be  nearer  science, 
110 


ART    APPRECIATION 

but  are  further  from  humanity.  We 
have  an  old  saying  in  Japan  that  a  wo- 
man cannot  love  a  man  who  is  truly 
vain,  for  there  is  no  crevice  in  his  heart 
for  love  to  enter  and  fill  up.  In  art 
vanity  is  equally  fatal  to  sympathetic 
feeling,  whether  on  the  part  of  the 
artist  or  the  public. 

Nothing  is  more  hallowing  than  the 
union  of  kindred  spirits  in  art.  At  the 
moment  of  meeting,  the  art  lover  tran- 
scends himself.  At  once  he  is  and  is 
not.  He  catches  a  glimpse  of  Infinity, 
but  words  cannot  voice  his  delight,  for 
the  eye  has  no  tongue.  Freed  from 
the  fetters  of  matter,  his  spirit  moves 
in  the  rhythm  of  things.  It  is  thus  that 
art  becomes  akin  to  religion  and  enno- 
bles mankind.  It  is  this  which  makes  a 
masterpiece  something  sacred.  In  the 
old  days  the  veneration  in  which  the 
111 


THE    BOOK    OF   TEA 


Japanese  held  the  work  of  the  great 
artist  was  intense.  The  tea-masters 
guarded  their  treasures  with  religious 
secrecy,  and  it  was  often  necessary  to 
open  a  whole  series  of  boxes,  one  within 
another,  before  reaching  the  shrine 
itself — the  silken  wrapping  within 
whose  soft  folds  lay  the  holy  of  holies. 
Rarely  was  the  object  exposed  to  view, 
and  then  only  to  the  initiated. 

At  the  time  when  Teaism  was  in  the 
ascendency  the  Taiko's  generals  would 
be  better  satisfied  with  the  present  of  a 
rare  work  of  art  than  a  large  grant  of 
territory  as  a  reward  of  victory.  Many 
of  our  favourite  dramas  are  based  on 
the  loss  and  recovery  of  a  noted  master- 
piece. For  instance,  in  one  play  the 
palace  of  Lord  Hosokawa,  in  which 
was  preserv^ed  the  celebrated  painting 
of  Dharuma  by  Sesson,  suddenly  takes 
112 


ART   APPRECIATION 

fire  through  the  negligence  of  the 
samurai  in  charge.  Resolved  at  all 
hazards  to  rescue  the  precious  painting, 
he  rushes  into  the  burning  building  and 
seizes  the  kakemono,  only  to  find  all 
means  of  exit  cut  off  by  the  flames. 
Thinking  only  of  the  picture,  he 
slashes  open  his  body  with  his  sword, 
wraps  his  torn  sleeve  about  the  Sesson 
and  plunges  it  into  the  gaping  wound. 
The  fire  is  at  last  extinguished.  Among 
the  smoking  embers  is  found  a  half- 
consumed  corpse,  within  which  reposes 
the  treasure  uninjured  by  the  fire.  Hor- 
rible as  such  tales  are,  they  illustrate 
the  great  value  that  we  set  upon  a  mas- 
terpiece, as  well  as  the  devotion  of  a 
trusted  samurai. 

We  must  remember,  however,    that 
art  is  of  value  only  to  the  extent  that  it 
speaks  to  us.    It  might  be  a  universal 
113 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA! 


language  if  we  ourselves  were  universal 
in  our  sympathies.  Our  finite  nature, 
the  power  of  tradition  and  convention- 
ality, as  well  as  our  hereditary  instincts, 
restrict  the  scope  of  our  capacity  for 
artistic  enjoyment.  Our  very  individ- 
uality establishes  in  one  sense  a  limit  to 
our  understanding;  and  our  aesthetic 
personality  seeks  its  own  affinities  in 
the  creations  of  the  past.  It  is  true  that 
with  cultivation  our  sense  of  art  appre- 
ciation broadens,  and  we  become  able 
to  enjoy  many  hitherto  unrecognised 
expressions  of  beauty.  But,  after  all, 
we  see  only  our  own  image  in  the  uni- 
verse,— our  particular  idiosyncracies 
dictate  the  mode  of  our  perceptions. 
The  tea-masters  collected  only  objects 
which  fell  strictly  within  the  measure 
of  their  individual  appreciation. 

One  is  reminded  in  this  connection 
114 


ART    APPRECIATION 

of  a  story  concerning  Kobori-Enshiu. 
Enshiu  was  complimented  by  his  disci- 
ples on  the  admirable  taste  he  had  dis- 
played in  the  choice  of  his  collection. 
Said  they,  "  Each  piece  is  such  that  no 
one  could  help  admiring.  It  shows  that 
you  had  better  taste  than  had  Rikiu, 
for  his  collection  could  only  be  appre- 
ciated by  one  beholder  in  a  thousand." 
Sorrowfully  Enshiu  replied :  "  This 
only  proves  how  commonplace  I  am. 
The  great  Rikiu  dared  to  love  only 
those  objects  which  personally  appealed 
to  him,  whereas  I  unconsciously  cater 
to  the  taste  of  the  majority.  Verily, 
Rikiu  was  one  in  a  thousand  among  tea- 
masters." 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  so 
much  of  the  apparent  enthusiasm  for 
art  at  the  present  day  has  no  founda- 
tion in  real  feeling.    In  this  democratic 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


age  of  ours  men  clamour  for  what  is 
popularly  considered  the  best,  regard- 
less of  their  feelings.  They  want  the 
costly,  not  the  refined;  the  fashionable, 
not  the  beautiful.  To  the  masses,  con- 
templation of  illustrated  periodicals,  the 
worthy  product  of  their  own  industrial- 
ism, would  give  more  digestible  food 
for  artistic  enjojuient  than  the  early 
Italians  or  the  Ashikaga  masters,  whom 
they  pretend  to  admire.  The  name  of 
the  artist  is  more  important  to  them 
than  the  quality  of  the  work.  As  a 
Chinese  critic  complained  many  centu- 
ries ago,  "  People  criticise  a  picture  by 
their  ear."  It  is  this  lack  of  genuine 
appreciation  that  is  responsible  for  the 
pseudo-classic  horrors  that  to-day  greet 
us  wherever  we  turn. 

Another  common  mistake  is  that  of 
confusing  art  with  archaeology.    The 
116 


ART    APPRECIATION 

'  « 

veneration  born  of  antiquity  is  one  of 
the  best  traits  in  the  human  character, 
and  fain  would  we  have  it  cultivated 
to  a  greater  extent.  The  old  masters 
are  rightly  to  be  honoured  for  opening 
the  path  to  future  enlightenment.  The 
mere  fact  that  they  have  passed  un- 
scathed through  centuries  of  criticism 
and  come  do^Mi  to  us  still  covered  with 
glory  commands  our  respect.  But  we 
should  be  foolish  indeed  if  we  valued 
their  achievement  simply  on  the  score 
of  age.  Yet  we  allow  our  historical 
sjTnpathy-  to  override  our  aesthetic  dis- 
crimination. We  offer  flowers  of  ap- 
probation when  the  artist  is  safely  laid 
in  his  grave.  The  nineteenth  century, 
pregnant  with  the  theory  of  evolution, 
has  moreover  created  in  us  the  habit  of 
losing  sight  of  the  individual  in  the 
species.  A  collector  is  anxious  to  ac- 
117 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


quire  sj^cimens  to  illustrate  a  period 
or  a  school,  and  forgets  that  a  single 
masterpiece  can  teach  us  more  than  any 
number  of  the  mediocre  products  of  a 
given  period  or  school.  We  classify 
too  much  and  enjoy  too  little.  The 
sacrifice  of  the  aesthetic  to  the  so-called 
scientific  method  of  exhibition  has  been 
the  bane  of  many  museums. 

The  claims  of  contemporary  art  can- 
not be  ignored  in  any  vital  scheme  of 
life.  The  art  of  to-day  is  that  which 
really  belongs  to  us:  it  is  our  ovm  re- 
flection. In  condemning  it  we  but 
condemn  ourselves.  We  say  that  the 
present  age  possesses  no  art: — who  is 
responsible  for  this?  It  is  indeed  a 
shame  that  despite  all  our  rhapsodies 
about  the  ancients  we  pay  so  little  at- 
tention to  our  own  possibilities.  Strug- 
gling artists,  weary  souls  lingering  in 

lis 


ART    APPRECIATION 

the  shadow  of  cold  disdain!  In  our 
self-centred  century,  what  inspiration 
do  we  offer  them?  The  past  may  well 
look  with  pity  at  the  poverty  of  our 
civilisation ;  the  future  will  laugh  at  the 
barrenness  of  our  art.  We  are  destroy- 
ing art  in  destroying  the  beautiful  in 
life.  Would  that  some  great  wizard 
might  from  the  stem  of  society  shape  a 
mighty  harp  whose  strings  would  re- 
sound to  the  touch  of  genius. 


119 


VI 

FLOWERS 


VI 

FLOWERS 

IX  the  trembling  grey  of  a  spring 
dawn,  when  the  birds  were  whisper- 
ing in  mysterious  cadence  among  the 
trees,  have  you  not  felt  that  they  were 
talking  to  their  mates  about  the  flow- 
ers? Surely  with  mankind  the  appre- 
ciation of  flowers  must  have  been 
coeval  with  the  poetry  of  love.  Where 
better  than  in  a  flower,  sweet  in  its 
unconsciousness,  fragrant  because  of 
its  silence,  can  we  image  the  unfolding 
of  a  virgin  soul?  The  primeval  man 
in  ofl*ering  the  first  garland  to  his 
maiden  thereby  transcended  the  brute. 
He  became  human  in  thus  rising  above 
the  crude  necessities  of  nature.  He 
123 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


entered  the  realm  of  art  when  he 
perceived  the  subtle  use  of  the  use- 
less. 

In  joy  or  sadness,  flowers  are  our 
constant  friends.  We  eat,  drink,  sing, 
dance,  and  flirt  with  them.  We  wed 
and  christen  with  flowers.  We  dare  not 
die  without  them.  We  have  worshipped 
with  the  lily,  we  have  meditated  with  the 
lotus,  we  have  charged  in  battle  array 
with  the  rose  and  the  chrj^santhemum. 
We  have  even  attempted  to  speak  in 
the  language  of  flowers.  How  could 
we  live  without  them?  It  frightens  one 
to  conceive  of  a  world  bereft  of  their 
presence.  "What  solace  do  they  not 
bring  to  the  bedside  of  the  sick,  what  a 
light  of  bliss  to  the  darkness  of  weary 
spirits?  Their  serene  tenderness  re- 
stores to  us  our  waning  confidence  in 
the  universe  even  as  the  intent  gaze  of  a 


FLOWERS 


beautiful  child  recalls  our  lost  hopes. 
When  we  are  laid  low  in  the  dust  it  is 
they  who  linger  in  sorrow  over  our 
graves. 

Sad  as  it  is,  we  cannot  conceal  the 
fact  that  in  spite  of  our  companionship 
with  flowers  we  have  not  risen  very  far 
above  the  brute.  Scratch  the  sheepskin 
and  the  wolf  within  us  will  soon  show, 
his  teeth.  It  has  been  said  that  man  at 
ten  is  an  animal,  at  twenty  a  lunatic,  at 
thirty  a  failure,  at  forty  a  fraud,  and  at 
fifty  a  criminal.  Perhaps  he  becomes  a 
criminal  because  he  has  never  ceased  to 
be  an  animal.  Nothing  is  real  to  us  but 
hunger,  nothing  sacred  except  our  own 
desires.  Shrine  after  shrine  has  crum- 
bled before  our  eyes ;  but  one  altar  for- 
ever is  preserved,  that  whereon  we  burn 
incense  to  the  supreme  idol, — ourselves. 
Our  god  is  great,  and  monejr  is  his 
125 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


Prophet !  We  devastate  nature  in  order 
to  make  sacrifice  to  him.  We  boast 
that  we  have  conquered  flatter  and  for- 
get that  it  is  Matter  that  has  enslaved 
us.  AVhat  atrocities  do  we  not  perpe- 
trate in  the  name  of  cultui'e  and  refine- 
ment! 

Tell  me,  gentle  flowers,  teardrops  of 
the  stars,  standing  in  the  garden,  nod- 
ding your  heads  to  the  bees  as  they  sing 
of  the  dews  and  the  sunbeams,  are  you 
aware  of  the  fearful  doom  that  awaits 
you?  Dream  on,  sway  and  frolic  while 
you  may  in  the  gentle  breezes  of  sum- 
mer. To-morrow  a  ruthless  hand  will 
close  around  your  throats.  You  will  be 
wrenched,  torn  asunder  limb  by  limb, 
and  borne  away  from  your  quiet  homes. 
The  wretch,  she  may  be  passing  fair. 
She  may  say  how  lovely  you  are  while 
her  fingers  are  still  moist  with  your 
126 


FLOWERS 


blood.  Tell  me,  will  this  be  kindness? 
It  may  be  your  fate  to  be  imprisoned 
in  the  hair  of  one  whom  you  know  to  be 
heartless  or  to  be  thrust  into  the  button- 
hole of  one  who  would  not  dare  to  look 
you  in  the  face  were  you  a  man.  It 
may  even  be  your  lot  to  be  confined  in 
some  narrow  vessel  with  only  stagnant 
water  to  quench  the  maddening  thirst 
that  warns  of  ebbing  life. 

Flowers,  if  you  were  in  the  land  of 
the  Mikado,  you  might  some  time  meet 
a  dread  personage  armed  with  scissors 
and  a  tiny  saw.  He  would  call  himself 
a  Master  of  Flowers.  He  would  claim 
the  rights  of  a  doctor  and  you  would 
instinctively  hate  him,  for  you  know  a 
doctor  always  seeks  to  prolong  the  trou- 
bles of  his  victims.  He  would  cut,  bend, 
and  twist  you  into  those  impossible  po- 
sitions which  he  thinks  it  proper  that 
127 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


you  should  assume.  He  would  contort 
your  muscles  and  dislocate  your  bones 
like  any  osteopath.  He  would  bum 
you  with  red-hot  coals  to  stop  your 
bleeding,  and  thrust  wires  into  you  to 
assist  your  circulation.  He  would  diet 
you  with  salt,  vinegar,  alum,  and 
sometimes,  vitriol.  Boiling  water  would 
be  poured  on  your  feet  when  you 
seemed  ready  to  faint.  It  would  be  his 
boast  that  he  could  keep  life  within  you 
for  two  or  more  weeks  longer  than 
would  have  been  possible  without  his 
treatment.  Would  you  not  have  pre- 
ferred to  have  been  killed  at  once  when 
you  were  first  captured?  What  were 
the  crimes  you  must  have  committed 
during  your  past  incarnation  to  warrant 
such  punishment  in  this? 

The  wanton  waste  of  flowers  among 
Western  communities  is  even  more  ap- 
128 


ftOWERS 

palling  than  the  way  they  are  treated 
by  Eastern  Flower  Masters.  The  num- 
ber of  flowers  cut  daily  to  adorn  tlie 
ballrooms  and  banquet-tables  of  Europe 
and  America,  to  be  thrown  away  on 
the  morrow,  must  be  something  enor- 
mous; if  strung  together  they  might 
garland  a  continent.  Beside  this  utter 
carelessness  of  life,  the  guilt  of  the 
Flower-Master  becomes  insignificant. 
He,  at  least,  respects  the  economy  of 
nature,  selects  his  victims  with  careful 
foresight,  and  after  death  does  honour 
to  their  remains.  In  the  West  the  dis- 
play of  flowers  seems  to  be  a  part  of 
the  pageantry  of  wealth, — ^the  fancy  of 
a  moment.  Whither  do  they  all  go, 
these  flowers,  when  the  revelry  is  over? 
Nothing  is  more  pitiful  than  to  see  a 
faded  flower  remorselessly  flung  upon 
a  dung  heap. 

129 


THE    BOOK   OF    TEA 


1^  Why  were  the  flowers  born  so  beauti- 
ful and  yet  so  hapless?  Insects  can 
sting,  and  even  the  meekest  of  beasts 
will  fight  when  brought  to  bay.  The 
birds  whose  plumage  is  sought  to  deck 
some  bonnet  can  fly  from  its  pursuer, 
the  furred  animal  whose  coat  you  covet 
for  your  own  may  hide  at  your  ap- 
proach. Alas!  The  only  flower  known 
to  have  wings  is  the  butterfly ;  all  others 
stand  helpless  before  the  destroyer.  If 
they  shriek  in  their  death  agony  their 
cry  never  reaches  our  hardened  ears. 
We  are  ever  brutal  to  those  who  love 
and  serve  us  in  silence,  but  the  time  may 
come  when,  for  our  cruelty,  we  shall 
be  deserted  by  these  best  friends  of 
ours.  Have  you  not  noticed  that  the 
wild  flowers  are  becoming  scarcer  every 
year?  It  may  be  that  their  wise  men 
have  told  them  to  depart  till  man  be- 
130 


FLOWERS 


comes  more  human.    Perhaps  they  have 
migrated  to  heaven. 

ISIuch  may  be  said  in  favour  of  him 
who  cultivates  plants.  The  man  of  the 
pot  is  far  more  humane  than  he  of  the 
scissors.  We  watch  with  delight  his 
concern  about  water  and  sunshine,  his 
feuds  with  parasites,  his  horror  of 
frosts,  his  anxiety  when  the  buds  come 
slowly,  his  rapture  when  the  leaves  at- 
tain their  lustre.  In  the  East  the  art  of 
floriculture  is  a  very  ancient  one,  and 
the  loves  of  a  poet  and  his  favourite 
plant  have  often  been  recorded  in  story 
and  song.  With  the  development  of 
ceramics  during  the  Tang  and  Sung 
dynasties  we  hear  of  wonderful  recep- 
tacles made  to  hold  plants,  not  pots,  but 
jewelled  palaces.  A  special  attendant 
was  detailed  to  wait  upon  each  flower 
and  to  wash  its  leaves  with  soft  brushes 
181 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


made  of  rabbit  hair.  It  has  been  writ- 
ten* that  the  peony  should  be  bathed 
by  a  handsome  maiden  in  full  costume, 
that  a  winter-plum  should  be  watered 
by  a  pale,  slender  monk.  In  Japan, 
one  of  the  most  popular  of  the  No- 
dances,  the  Hachinoki,  composed  dur- 
ing the  Ashikaga  period,  is  based  upon 
the  story  of  an  impoverished  knight, 
who,  on  a  freezing  night,  in  lack  of  fuel 
for  a  fire,  cuts  his  cherished  plants  in 
order  to  entertain  a  wandering  friar. 
The  friar  is  in  reality  no  other  than 
Hojo-Tokiyori,  the  Haroun-Al-Ras- 
chid  of  our  tales,  and  the  sacrifice  is  not 
without  its  reward.  This  opera  never 
fails  to  draw  tears  from  a  Tokio  audi- 
ence even  to-day. 

Great  precautions  were  taken  for  the 
preservation  of  delicate  blossoms.  Em- 

i"Pingtse,"  by  Yuenchunlang. 
132 


FLOWERS 


peror  Huensung,  of  the  Tang  dynasty, 
hung  tiny  golden  bells  on  the  branches 
in  his  garden  to  keep  off  the  birds.  He 
it  was  who  went  off  in  the  springtime 
with  his  court  musicians  to  gladden  the 
flowers  with  soft  music.  A  quaint  tab- 
let, which  tradition  ascribes  to  Yoshit- 
sune,  the  hero  of  our  Arthurian  legends, 
is  still  extant  in  one  of  the  Japanese 
monasteries."  It  is  a  notice  put  up  for 
the  protection  of  a  certain  wonderful 
plum-tree,  and  appeals  to  us  with  the 
grim  humour  of  a  warlike  age.  After 
referring  to  the  beauty  of  the  blossoms, 
the  inscription  says :  "  Whoever  cuts  a 
single  branch  of  this  tree  shall  forfeit 
a  finger  therefor."  Would  that  such 
laws  could  be  enforced  nowadays 
against  those  who  wantonly  destroj^ 
flowers  and  mutilate  objects  of  art  I 

2  Sumadera,  near  Kobe. 
133 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEAl 


Yet  even  in  the  case  of  pot  flowers 
we  are  inclined  to  suspect  the  selfishness 
of  man.  Why  take  the  plants  from 
their  homes  and  ask  them  to  bloom  mid 
strange  surroundings?  Is  it  not  hke 
asking  the  birds  to  sing  and  mate 
cooped  up  in  cages?  Who  knows  but 
that  the  orchids  feel  stifled  by  the  arti- 
ficial heat  in  your  conservatories  and 
hopelessly  long  for  a  glimpse  of  their 
own  Southern  skies? 
V  The  ideal  lover  of  flowers  is  he  who 
visits  them  in  their  native  haunts,  like 
Taoyuenming,^  who  sat  before  a  broken 
bamboo  fence  in  converse  with  the  wild 
chrysanthemum,  or  Linwosing,  losing 
himself  amid  mysterious  fragrance  as 
he  wandered  in  the  twilight  among  the 
plum-blossoms  of  the  Western  Lake. 
'Tis  said  that  Chowmusliih  slept  in  a 

*A11  celebrated  Chinese  poets  and  philosophers. 
134! 


FLOWERS 


boat  so  that  his  dreams  might  mingle 
with  those  of  the  lotus.  It  was  this 
same  spirit  which  moved  the  Empress 
Komio,  one  of  our  most  reno^\Tied  Nara 
sovereigns,  as  she  sang :  "  If  I  pluck 
thee,  my  hand  will  defile  thee,  O 
Flower!  Standing  in  the  meadows  as 
thou  art,  I  offer  thee  to  the  Buddhas 
of  the  past,  of  the  present,  of  the 
future." 

However,  let  us  not  be  too  sentimen- 
tal. Let  us  be  less  luxurious  but  more 
magnificent.  Said  Laotse :  "  Heaven 
and  earth  are  pitiless."  Said  Kobodai- 
shi :  "  Flow,  flow,  flow,  flow,  the  current 
of  life  is  ever  onward.  Die,  die,  die, 
die,  death  comes  to  all."  Destruction 
faces  us  wherever  we  turn.  Destruction 
below  and  above,  destruction  behind 
and  before.  Change  is  the  only  Eter- 
nal,— why  not  as  welcome  Death  as 
135 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


Life?  They  are  but  counterparts  one 
of  the  other, — the  Night  and  Day  of 
[Brahma.  Through  the  disintegration 
of  the  old,  re-creation  becomes  possible. 
iWe  have  worshipped  Death,  the  relent- 
less goddess  of  mercy,  under  many  dif- 
ferent names.  It  was  the  shadow  of  the 
All-devouring  that  the  Gheburs  greeted 
in  the  fire.  It  is  the  icy  purism  of  the 
sword-soul  before  which  Shinto-Japan 
prostrates  herself  even  to-day.  The 
mystic  fire  consumes  our  weakness,  the 
sacred  sword  cleaves  the  bondage  of 
desire.  From  our  ashes  springs  the 
phoenix  of  celestial  hope,  out  of  the 
freedom  comes  a  higher  realisation  of 
manhood. 

Why  not  destroy  flowers  if  thereby 

we  can  evolve  new  forms  ennobling  the 

world  idea?    We  only  ask  them  to  join 

in  our  sacrifice  to  the  beautiful.    We 

136 


FLOWERS 


shall  atone  for  the  deed  by  consecrating 
ourselves  to  Purity  and  SimpUcity. 
Thus  reasoned  the  tea-masters  when 
they  established  the  Cult  of  Flowers. 

Anyone  acquainted  with  the  ways 
of  our  tea-  and  flower-masters  must 
have  noticed  the  religious  veneration 
with  which  they  regard  flowers.  They 
do  not  cull  at  random,  but  carefully  se- 
lect each  branch  or  spray  with  an  eye  to 
the  artistic  composition  they  have  in 
mind.  They  would  be  ashamed  should 
they  chance  to  cut  more  than  were  abso- 
lutely necessary.  It  may  be  remarked 
in  this  connection  that  tliey  always  asso- 
ciate the  leaves,  if  there  be  any,  with  the 
flower,  for  their  object  is  to  present  the 
whole  beauty  of  plant  life.  In  this 
respect,  as  in  many  others,  their  method 
difl*ers  from  that  pursued  in  Western 
countries.  Here  we  are  apt  to  see  onlj^ 
137 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA; 


the  flower  steins,  heads,  as  it  were,  with- 
out body,  stuck  promiscuously  into  a 
yase. 

When  a  tea-master  has  arranged  a 
flower  to  his  satisfaction  he  will  place 
it  on  the  tokonoma,  the  place  of  honour 
in  a  Japanese  room.  Nothing  else  will 
be  placed  near  it  which  might  interfere 
with  its  effect,  not  even  a  painting,  un- 
less there  be  some  special  aesthetic  rea- 
son for  the  combination.  It  rests  there 
like  an  entlironed  prince,  and  the  guests 
or  disciples  on  entering  the  room  will 
salute  it  with  a  profound  bow  before 
making  their  addresses  to  the  host. 
Drawings  from  masterpieces  are  made 
and  published  for  the  edification  of 
amateurs.  The  amoimt  of  literature  on 
the  subject  is  quite  voluminous.  When 
the  flower  fades,  the  master  tenderly 
consigns  it  to  the  river  or  carefully  bur- 
138 


FLOWERS 


ies  it  in  the  ground.  ^lonuments  even 
are  sometimes  erected  to  their  memory. 
The  bu-th  of  the  Art  of  Flower  Ar- 
rangement seems  to  be  simultaneous 
with  that  of  Teaism  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  Our  legends  ascribe  the  first 
flower  arrangement  to  those  early 
Buddhist  saints  who  gathered  the  flow- 
ers strewn  by  the  storm  and,  in  their 
infinite  solicitude  for  all  living  things, 
placed  them  in  vessels  of  water.  It  is 
said  that  Soami,  the  great  painter  and 
connoisseur  of  the  court  of  Ashikaga- 
Yoshimasa,  was  one  of  the  earliest 
adepts  at  it.  Juko,  the  tea-master,  was 
one  of  his  pupils,  as  was  also  Senno, 
the  founder  of  the  house  of  Ikenobo,  a 
family  as  illustrious  in  the  annals  of 
flowers  as  was  that  of  the  Kanos  in 
painting.  With  the  perfecting  of  the 
tea-ritual  under  Rikiu,  in  the  latter 
139 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  flower 
arrangement  also  attains  its  full  growth. 
Rikiu  and  his  successors,  the  celebrated 
Ota-wuraka,  Furuka-Oribe,  Koyetsu, 
Kobori-Enshiu,  Katagii-i-Sekishiu,  vied 
with  each  other  in  forming  new  combi- 
nations. We  must  remember,  however, 
that  the  flower  worship  of  the  tea-mas- 
ters formed  only  a  part  of  their  aesthetic 
ritual,  and  was  not  a  distinct  religion 
by  itself.  A  flowxr  arrangement,  like 
the  other  works  of  art  in  the  tea-room, 
was  subordinated  to  the  total  scheme  of 
decoration.  Thus  Sekishiu  ordained 
that  white  plum  blossoms  should  not  be 
made  use  of  when  snow  lay  in  the  gar- 
den. "  Noisy  "  flowers  were  relentlessly 
banished  from  the  tea-room.  A  flower 
arrangement  by  a  tea-master  loses  its 
significance  if  removed  from  the  place 
for  which  it  was  originally  intended, 
140 


FLOWERS 


for  its  lines  and  proportions  have  been 
specially  worked  out  with  a  view  to  its 
surroundings. 

The  adoration  of  the  flower  for  its 
own  sake  begins  with  the  rise  of  "  Flow- 
er-Masters," toward  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  It  now  becomes 
independent  of  the  tea-room  and  knows 
no  law  save  that  that  the  vase  imposes 
on  it.  Xew  conceptions  and  methods  of 
execution  now  become  possible,  and 
many  were  the  principles  and  schools  re- 
sulting therefrom.  A  writer  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  last  century  said  he  could 
count  over  one  hundred  different  schools 
of  flower  arrangement.  Broadly  speak- 
ing, these  divide  themselves  into  two 
main  branches,  the  Formalistic  and  the 
Naturalesque.  The  Formalistic  schools, 
led  by  the  Ikenobos,  aimed  at  a  classic 
ideahsm  corresponding  to  that  of  the 
141 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


Kano-academicians.  We  possess  rec- 
ords of  arrangements  by  the  early  mas- 
ters of  this  school  which  almost  repro- 
duce the  flower  paintings  of  Sansetsu 
and  Tsunenobu.  The  Xatm-alesque 
school,  on  the  other  hand,  as  its  name 
implies,  accepted  nature  as  its  model, 
only  imposing  such  modifications  of 
form  as  conduced  to  the  expression  of 
artistic  unity.  Thus  we  recognise  in  its 
works  the  same  impulses  which  formed 
the  Ukiyoe  and  Shi  jo  schools  of 
painting. 

It  would  be  interesting,  had  we  time, 
to  enter  more  fully  than  is  now  possi- 
ble into  the  laws  of  composition  and 
detail  formulated  by  the  various  flower- 
masters  of  this  period,  showing,  as  they 
would,  the  fundamental  theories  which 
governed  Tokugawa  decoration.  We 
find  them  referring  to  tlie  Leading 
U2 


FLOWERS 


Principle  (Heaven),  the  Subordinate 
Principle  (Earth),  the  Reconciling 
Principle  (JNIan),  and  any  flower  ar- 
rangement which  did  not  embody  these 
principles  was  considered  barren  and 
dead.  They  also  dwelt  much  on  the 
importance  of  treating  a  flower  in  its 
three  diff'erent  aspects,  the  Formal,  the 
Semi-Formal,  and  the  Informal.  The 
first  might  be  said  to  represent  flowers 
in  the  stately  costume  of  the  ballroom, 
the  second  in  the  easy  elegance  of  after- 
noon dress,  the  third  in  the  charming 
deshabille  of  the  boudoir. 

Our  personal  sympathies  are  with  the 
flower-arrangements  of  the  tea-master 
rather  than  with  those  of  the  flower- 
master.  The  former  is  art  in  its  proper 
setting  and  appeals  to  us  on  account  of 
its  true  intimacy  with  life.  We  should 
hke  to  call  this  school  the  Natural  in 
143 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


contradistinction  to  the  Xaturalesque 
and  Formalistic  schools.  The  tea-mas- 
ter deems  his  duty  ended  with  the  selec- 
tion of  the  flowers,  and  leaves  them  to 
tell  their  own  story.  Entering  a  tea- 
room in  late  winter,  you  may  see  a  slen- 
der spray  of  wild  cherries  in  combina- 
tion with  a  budding  camellia;  it  is  an 
echo  of  departing  winter  coupled  with 
the  prophecy  of  spring.  Again,  if  you 
go  into  a  noon-tea  on  some  irritatingly 
hot  summer  day,  you  may  discover  in 
the  darkened  coolness  of  the  tokonoma 
a  single  lily  in  a  hanging  vase ;  dripping 
wuth  dew,  it  seems  to  smile  at  the  fool- 
ishness of  life. 

A  solo  of  flowers  is  interesting,  but 
in  a  concerto  with  painting  and  sculp- 
ture the  combination  becomes  entran- 
cing. Sekishiu  once  placed  some  water- 
plants  in  a  flat  receptacle  to  suggest  the 
144 


FLOWERS 


vegetation  of  lakes  and  marshes,  and  on 
the  wall  above  he  hung  a  painting  by 
Soami  of  wild  ducks  flying  in  the  air. 
Shoha,  another  tea-master,  combined  a 
poem  on  the  Beauty  of  Solitude  by 
the  Sea  with  a  bronze  incense  burner 
in  the  form  of  a  fisherman's  hut  and 
some  wild  flowers  of  the  beach.  One  of 
the  guests  has  recorded  that  he  felt  in 
the  whole  composition  the  breath  ofi 
waning  autumn. 

Flower  stories  are  endless.  We  shall 
recount  but  one  more.  In  the  sixteentK 
century  the  morning-glory  was  as  yet 
a  rare  plant  with  us.  Rikiu  had  an 
entire  garden  planted  with  it,  whicH 
he  cultivated  with  assiduous  care.  The 
fame  of  his  convolvuli  reached  the  ear 
of  the  Taiko,  and  he  expressed  a  desire 
to  see  them,  in  consequence  of  whicK 
Rikiu  invited  him  to  a  morning  tea  at 
145 


THE    BOOK   OF   TEA 


his  house.  On  the  appointed  day  Taiko 
walked  through  the  garden,  but  no- 
where could  he  see  any  vestige  of  the 
convolvulus.  The  ground  had  been 
leveled  and  strewn  with  fine  pebbles  and 
sand.  With  sullen  anger  the  despot  en- 
tered the  tea-room,  but  a  sight  waited 
him  there  which  completely  restored  his 
humour.  On  the  tokonoma,  in  a  rare 
bronze  of  Sung  workmanship,  lay  a 
single  morning-glory — the  queen  of  the 
whole  garden! 

In  such  instances  we  see  the  full  sig- 
nificance of  the  Flower  Sacrifice.  Per- 
haps the  flowers  appreciate  the  full  sig- 
nificance of  it.  They  are  not  cowards, 
like  men.  Some  flowers  glory  in  death 
— certainly  the  Japanese  cherry  blos- 
soms do,  as  they  freely  surrender  them- 
selves to  the  winds.  Anyone  who  has 
stood  before  the  fragrant  avalanche  at 
146 


FLOWERS 


Yoshino  or  Arashiyama  must  have  rea- 
lised this.  For  a  moment  they  hover 
hke  bejewelled  clouds  and  dance  above 
the  crystal  streams;  then,  as  they  sail 
away  on  the  laughing  waters,  they  sean 
to  say:  "  Farewell,  O  Spring  I  We  are 
pn  to  Eternity." 


14^ 


VII 
TEA   MASTERS 


VII 

TEA-MASTERS 

IN  religion  the  Future  is  behind  us. 
In  art  the  Present  is  the  eternal. 
The  tea-masters  held  that  real  apprecia- 
tion of  art  is  only  possible  to  those  who 
make  of  it  a  living  influence.  Thus 
they  sought  to  regulate  their  daily  life 
by  the  high  standard  of  refinement 
which  obtained  in  the  tea-room.  In  all 
circumstances  serenity  of  mind  should 
be  maintained,  and  conversation  should 
be  so  conducted  as  never  to  mar  the 
harmony  of  the  surroundings.  The 
cut  and  colour  of  the  dress,  the  poise  of 
the  body,  and  the  manner  of  walking 
could  all  be  made  expressions  of  artistic 
personality.  These  were  matters  not 
151 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEX 


to  be  lightly  ignored,  for  until  one  has 
made  himself  beautiful  he  has  no  right 
to  approach  beauty.  Thus  the  tea-mas- 
ter strove  to  be  something  more  than 
the  artist, — art  itself.  It  was  the  Zen 
iof  aestheticism.  Perfection  is  every- 
where if  we  only  choose  to  recognise  it. 
Rikiu  loved  to  quote  an  old  poem  which 
says:  "To  those  who  long  only  for 
flowers,  fain  would  I  show  the  full- 
blown spring  which  abides  in  the  toiling 
buds  of  snow-covered  hills.'* 
'  Manifold  indeed  have  been  the  con- 
tributions of  the  tea-masters  to  art. 
They  completely  revolutionised  the 
classical  architecture  and  interior  deco- 
rations, and  established  the  new  style 
which  we  have  described  in  the  chapter 
of  the  tea-room,  a  style  to  whose  influ- 
ence even  the  palaces  and  monasteries 
built  after  the  sixteenth  century  have 
152 


TEA-MASTERS 


all  been  subject.  The  many-sided 
Kobori-Enshiu  has  left  notable  exam- 
ples of  his  genius  in  the  Imperial  villa 
of  Katsura,  the  castles  of  Najoya  and 
Nijo,  and  the  monastery  of  Kohoan. 
All  the  celebrated  gardens  of  Japan 
were  laid  out  by  the  tea-masters.  Our 
potteiy  would  probably  never  have  at- 
tained its  high  quality  of  excellence  if 
the  tea-masters  had  not  lent  to  it  their 
inspiration,  the  manufacture  of  the 
utensils  used  in  the  tea  ceremony  calling 
forth  the  utmost  expenditure  of  inge- 
nuity on  the  part  of  our  ceramists.  The 
Seven  Kilns  of  Enshiu  are  well  known 
to  all  students  of  Japanese  pottery. 
Many  of  our  textile  fabrics  bear  the 
names  of  tea-masters  who  conceived 
their  colour  or  design.  It  is  impossible, 
indeed,  to  find  any  department  of  art 
in  which  the  tea-masters  have  not  left 
X63 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


marks  of  their  genius.  In  painting  and 
lacquer  it  seems  almost  superfluous  to 
mention  the  immense  serv^ice  they  have 
rendered.  One  of  the  greatest  schools 
of  painting  owes  its  origin  to  the  tea- 
master  Honnami-Koyetsu,  famed  also 
as  a  lacquer  artist  and  potter.  Beside 
his  works,  the  splendid  creation  of  his 
grandson,  Koho,  and  of  his  grand- 
nephews,  Korin  and  Kenzan,  almost 
fall  into  the  shade.  The  whole  Korin 
school,  as  it  is  generally  designated,  is 
an  expression  of  Teaism.  In  the  broad 
lines  of  this  school  we  seem  to  find  the 
vitality  of  nature  herself. 

Great  as  has  been  the  influence  of  the 
tea-masters  in  the  field  of  art,  it  is  as 
nothing  compared  to  that  which  they 
have  exerted  on  the  conduct  of  life. 
Not  only  in  the  usages  of  polite  society, 
but  also  in  the  arrangement  of  all  our 
154j 


TEA-MASTERS 


domestic  details,  do  we  feel  the  presence 
of  the  tea-masters.  Many  of  our  deli- 
cate dishes,  as  well  as  our  way  of  serv- 
ing food,  are  their  inventions.  They 
have  taught  us  to  dress  only  in  gar- 
ments of  sober  colours.  They  have  in- 
structed us  in  the  proper  spirit  in  which 
to  approach  flowers.  They  have  given 
emphasis  to  our  natural  love  of  sim- 
plicity, and  shown  us  the  beauty  of  hu- 
mility. In  fact,  through  their  teachings 
tea  has  entered  the  life  of  the  people. 

Those  of  us  who  know  not  the  secret 
of  proj^erly  regulating  our  own  exist- 
ence on  this  tumultuous  sea  of  f  oolisK 
troubles  which  we  call  life  are  con- 
stantly in  a  state  of  misery  while  vainly; 
trying  to  appear  happy  and  contented. 
We  stagger  in  the  attempt  to  keep  our 
moral  equilibrium,  and  see  forerunners 
of  the  tempest  in  every  cloud  that  floats 
155 


THE    BOOK    OF   TEA 


on  the  horizon.  Yet  there  is  joy  and 
beauty  in  the  roll  of  the  billows  as  they 
sweep  outward  toward  eternity.  Why 
not  enter  into  their  spirit,  or,  like 
Liehtse,  ride  upon  the  hurricane  itself? 

He  only  who  has  lived  with  the  beau- 
tiful can  die  beautifully.  The  last 
moments  of  the  great  tea-masters  were 
as  full  of  exquisite  refinement  as  had 
been  their  lives.  Seeking  always  to  be 
in  harmony  with  the  great  rhythm  of 
the  universe,  they  were  ever  prepared  to 
enter  the  imknown.  The  "  Last  Tea 
of  Rikiu  '*  will  stand  forth  forever  as 
the  acme  of  tragic  grandeur. 

Long  had  been  the  friendship  be- 
tween Rikiu  and  the  Taiko-Hideyoshi, 
and  high  the  estimation  in  which  the 
great  warrior  held  the  tea-master.  But 
the  friendship  of  a  despot  is  ever  a  dan- 
gerous honour.  It  was  an  age  rife 
156 


TEA-MASTERS 


with  treachery,  and  men  trusted  not 
even  their  nearest  kin.  Rikiu  was  no 
servile  courtier,  and  had  often  dared 
to  differ  in  argument  with  his  fierce 
patron.  Taking  advantage  of  the  cold- 
ness which  had  for  some  time  existed  be- 
tween the  Taiko  and  Rikiu,  the  enemies 
of  the  latter  accused  him  of  being  im- 
plicated in  a  conspiracy  to  poison  the 
despot.  It  was  whispered  to  Hidey- 
oshi  that  the  fatal  potion  was  to  be  ad- 
ministered to  him  with  a  cup  of  the 
green  beverage  prepared  by  the  tea- 
master.  With  Hideyoshi  suspicion  was 
sufficient  ground  for  instant  execution, 
and  there  was  no  appeal  from  the  will 
of  the  angry  ruler.  One  privilege  alone 
was  granted  to  the  condemned — ^the 
honour  of  dying  by  his  own  hand. 

On  the  day  destined  for  his  self-im- 
molation, Rikiu  invited  his  chief  dis- 
167 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


ciples  to  a  last  tea-ceremony.  ISIourn- 
fully  at  the  appointed  time  the  guests 
met  at  the  portico.  As  they  look  into 
the  garden  path  the  trees  seem  to  shud- 
der, and  in  the  rustling  of  their  leaves 
are  heard  the  whispers  of  homeless 
ghosts.  Like  solemn  sentinels  before 
the  gates  of  Hades  stand  the  grey  stone 
lanterns.  A  wave  of  rare  incense  is 
wafted  from  the  tea-room ;  it  is  the  sum- 
mons which  bids  the  guests  to  enter. 
One  by  one  they  advance  and  take  their 
places.  In  the  tokonoma  hangs  a  kake- 
mono,— a  wonderful  writing  by  an  an- 
cient monk  dealing  with  the  evanescence 
of  all  earthly  things.  The  singing  ket- 
tle, as  it  boils  over  the  brazier,  sounds 
like  some  cicada  pouring  forth  his  woes 
to  departing  summer.  Soon  the  host 
enters  the  room.  Each  in  turn  is  serv^ed 
with  tea,  and  each  in  turn  silentl)^  drains 
158 


TEA-MASTERS 


his  cup,  the  host  last  of  all.  Accord- 
ing to  established  etiquette,  the  chief 
guest  now  asks  permission  to  examine 
the  tea-equipage.  Rikiu  places  the 
various  articles  before  them,  with  the 
kakemono.  After  all  have  expressed 
admiration  of  their  beauty,  Rikiu  pre- 
sents one  of  them  to  each  of  the  assem- 
bled company  as  a  souvenir.  The  bowl 
alone  he  keeps.  "  Never  again  shall 
this  cup,  polluted  by  the  lips  of  mis- 
fortune, be  used  by  man."  He  speaks, 
and  breaks  the  vessel  into  fragments. 

The  ceremony  is  over;  the  guests  with 
difficulty  restraining  their  tears,  take 
their  last  farewell  and  leave  the  room. 
One  only,  the  nearest  and  dearest,  is 
requested  to  remain  and  witness  the  end. 
Rikiu  then  removes  his  tea-gown  and 
carefully  folds  it  upon  the  mat,  thereby 
disclosing  the  inmiaculate  white  death, 
155 


THE    BOOK    OF    TEA 


robe  which  it  had  hitherto  concealed. 
Tenderly  he  gazes  on  the  shining  blade 
of  the  fatal  dagger,  and  in  exquisite 
verse  thus  addresses  it: 

"  Welcome  to  thee, 
O  sword  of  eternity! 
Through  Buddha 
And  through  Dharuma  alike 
Thou  hast  cleft  thy  way," 

iWitH  a  smile  upon  his  face  Rikiu 
passed  forth  into  the  unknown. 


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